Still Hunting after not so many years
by CGAdam
Summary: The Key showed countless Vaults among the stars, and the Hunters are living up to their title. Will this be the Vault of endless riches and immeasurable fame, or just another door to nothing but tentacles and disappointment? I think we all know the answer to that: MAAAAAYBEEEEE. (All the Hunters, Action, Adventure, BL2 style humor.)
1. Of all the planets in all the galaxies

"Is anyone else getting that feeling?"

Axton pulled his gaze away from the light of the stars swirling past the transparent dome of the ship presently named _The Fiery Pearlescent Meat Grinder_ and looked over to the red-headed girl bouncing in her seat. "What feeling is that, exactly?"

"The 'night before a big event' type feeling," Gaige said, leaning forward in her beanbag chair and staring raptly at the stars. "It's taken us six weeks to get here, but we're _finally_ about to visit our first planet since leaving Pandora!" Her smile stretched almost literally ear to ear. "It's like Christmas Eve!"

"It _does _remind me of Mercenary Day morning," Salvador admitted, polishing the barrels of his minigun. "I sorta feel like _mi abuela _should come in singing with a plate of guns."

Gaige blinked. "A _plate_ of guns?"

"Yep! Every year, we'd start off Mercenary Day by clearing out some of the more violent bandit groups around the village for free. Abuela always let us use her family heirloom pistols for it." He sighed, a happy smile on his face. "She'd stay up all night polishing 'em for us."

Axton let the baffled silence hang in the air a few more seconds, then coughed. "Well, I guess it reminds me of the nights we'd stop off at a free port. That was usually right before we got dropped into a combat zone." He gave a sort of crooked smile. _"Nobody_ parties harder than troops that know they could be dead in a few hours."

Gaige rolled her eyes. "Thanks for killing the mood, Darren Downer."

"No, really! We all had a great time!" He leaned back, laughing. "My favorite was this one port, right before making planetfall on a _real_ hellhole of a world. Sarah pulled a few favors and got us off the transport before anyone else, and we beelined it straight for the fanciest hotel around." His grin edged into the more lecherous side. "Thank god they had good room service. We didn't _leave_ that room for thirty-six hours. Sarah had just learned this thing where-"

"OOOkay, moving on!" Gaige yelled. "How about you, Krieg? This feel like anything special to you?"

Kreig grunted and spun the blade on his axe with one finger. "Every night before the blue sun rises and sends its happy heat into the world!"

Salvador scratched his head. "Was that depressing or hopeful?"

"Morning, all. Anyone else want coffee?"

At the sound of Maya's voice, Krieg leaped off his ragged, tattered chair and bounded to her side. "Morning, sunshine!"

Sal and Gaige looked at each other. "Oooooh..."

Maya turned a puzzled glance on them as she set the silver carafe on the table. "What was that?"

"Light dawning," Gaige said cryptically. "Is that the real stuff, or liquified and flavored nutrient paste?"

"Real, of course," Maya replied, taking a drink from her own mug. "We're about to enter the system. That _definitely_ calls for actual coffee."

"It also calls for our pilot," Axton said, glancing past Maya as the elevator slid seamlessly back into the floor. "Wasn't Cassidy with you?"

"She went to get Zero," Maya told him. "He's been in the shooting range for the past couple hours trying to finish one more project before we get there. Not to worry, though, she can drop us out of lightspeed from anywhere on the ship." Maya settled into her rocking chair. "So, what were you talking about?"

"The fun of anticipation!" Gaige chirped. "How about it, Maya? Were there any big holidays you looked forward to as a kid?"

Maya sipped her coffee and made a face that had nothing to do with flavor. "Not really. Athenas didn't allow the celebrations that most human worlds do."

"Makes sense, given that the planet was run by a bunch of pessimistic monks," Axton quipped. "I mean, 'Order of the Impending Storm'? Talk about gloom and doom."

"There must have been _something_," Gaige insisted, shooting Axton a dirty look. "Wasn't there at least one night you waited for all year?"

Maya pursed her lips for moment, then her expression brightened. "There was one thing," she said. "The night before the carnival."

"_Que es, senorita?_"

"It was a local thing," Maya explained. "Some planetary alignment that the Order decided was worthy of a celebration. They never _let_ me go, but when I was ten, I started sneaking out for at least one night of the party."

"Breaking rules early, eh, _chica?_" Salvador teased.

"And never regretted it once," Maya said firmly. "If I hadn't started back then, I might never have met you. Guys. Any of you guys." She took a large gulp of coffee, then glanced over at the elevator. "Oh, look, the assassin and our pilot are here. Good timing, you two."

"The turtle finished five minutes ago!" Krieg groused. "Was the rabbit sleeping?"

Cassidy jerked her thumb at Zero. "Blame my big brother, who wouldn't walk away from his latest bullet work."

"Bullet artistry Requires concentration," Zero insisted. "I couldn't just _stop._"

"Well, you pushed it right to the limit," Gaige said. "What were you working on, anyway?"

:) "Anticipation." Zero handed Gaige a rolled up sheet of paper and walked over to Cassidy's command chair.

Maya circled around behind Gaige and peered over her shoulder. "So? What is it this time?"

Gaige unrolled the paper. Her mouth dropped open as she examined Zero's handiwork. "_Whoa..._"

Stretched across it in burned, punctured glory, the Eridian Warrior perched atop the stone arch of the Vault symbol. Its jaws were cracked open in anticipation of its prey, the handful of tiny figures staring up at it. The Warrior's bullethole eyes glared down at them, promising the fight of a lifetime.

Gaige felt a chill run down her spine as she remembered that moment, hearing the Warrior's roar echo in her mind's ear. "Do me a favor, Z," she said, rolling up the paper and handing it to Maya. "Next time, just bullet-draw a pony or a robot or something, okay?"

"You may be waiting a while," Cassidy said, running her hands over the holographic controls all around her. "Welcome to the new world." She waved her arms, and the blurry light of hyperspace faded into blackness with pinpoints of light all around them.

Axton looked around the dome, slightly confused. "Uh, Cass? Where's the planet?"

"Underneath us." Cassidy pressed one final holographic button, and the _Fiery Pearlescent_ began a slow, even turn on its long axis.

Salvador shifted back and forth uneasily. "Sooo... are _we_ upside down right now, or is the planet?"

Gaige's face broke into a devilish grin. "Having a little trouble with the idea of variable gravity, Sally?"

"No!" He glanced at the rotating stars. "Maybe a little."

"Then this one will _really_ blow your mind." She leaned closer. "We've been flying upside down the whole way here. Six _weeks_."

"But that doesn't-"

"There it is!"

Maya was pointing to the edge of the dome. A bluish arc had begun to come into view, rising like a cerulean sun. As the ship's rotation continued, more of the planet appeared. In a few minutes, the sky above the dome was filled with the massive sphere of the planet, daylight reflecting off its atmosphere and into the room around them.

Maya spread her arms, basking in the glow. "Actual _sunlight_. We're not even planetside and I love it." She sighed happily and turned to Cassidy. "How long before we can touch down?"

"I'm setting up the shuttles," she answered. "Then I can seek out a landing site."

Axton squinted at the planet. "Are we even going to be _able_ to land? The whole planet looks like an ocean."

"Your eyes deceive you," Zero warned. "The surface is not water, Merely appears so." He pulled up a holographic screen of his own, and a patch of land appeared. "Behold an image Of the sea and shore below." The image, though slightly hazy and pixelated, did show a clear division between land and water. "I _love_ these sensors."

"Huh." Salvador looked between the planet and the video replay. "Why's the whole place blue, then?"

"It looks like the planet's sun runs a little further into that end of the visual spectrum," Gaige said, reading from another holoscreen. "Plus, there's some kind of weird diffusion effect on the planet. The blue light's getting spread out a lot more than usual." She swiped the screen to another image. "It probably won't look exactly the same once we're down there, but they'll probably still be a lot less color range than usual. On the plus side, atmosphere is human compatible, so no breathing worries."

Axton frowned at Gaige. "Wait, since when can you work the holograms like that?"

"Since about day two of the trip." Gaige stuck her tongue out at him. "Not _everyone_ has been hiding out in the gym this whole time."

"I have not-"

"Ahem." Cassidy's cough cut off the argument before it could really get started. "Our shuttles are set. Are we ready to determine our destination?"

"Should be," Axon said with a final grouchy look at Gaige. "How about it, Zero? Can those sensors pick up anything that looks like a Vault?"

Zero was already looking at several different screens. "Nothing found so far," he admitted. "But we've only just started, And the planet is vast."

"What are you looking for?" Gaige asked, peering around Zero's side. "Alien metals? Weird energy signatures? Signs of large scale construction?"

"All of the above..."

Salvador, bored by the science talk, wandered over to Maya. She was standing by the edge of the dome, staring at the blue world overhead, Krieg towering by her side. "Cool sight, eh, _amigos_?"

"Hm?" Maya glanced down at Salvador. "Oh, hi. Yeah, it's... really something." She stared out the dome again. "This might be it, Sal. I might find an answer this time around."

"And if you don't, we'll still have some fun," Salvador said with a shrug. "Never thought I'd be this far from my little village. Figured I'd live and die there." He grinned. "Guess I owe Hyperion one for attacking my town back then."

"Uh-huh."

Salvador looked up at Maya again, frowning slightly. "You okay? You're being _muy_ quiet for a Vault Hunter about to tackle a new world." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. "Don't you wanna throw in on picking a landing spot?"

"Is that what they're doing?" Maya blinked and inhaled sharply, seeming to come back to herself. "Time to get down to it, then." She turned and head towards the center of the dome, where the others were now examining a holographic version of the planet.

Salvador's frown deepened a little more. He leaned over to Krieg. "She okay, _muchacho?_"

Krieg growled slightly and shrugged. "Pretty Lady _did_ seem to want fish instead of meat." He leaned even closer to Salvador and lowered his voice. "Watch the fairest in the land with me, eh, Grumpy?"

"You got it, _amigo_," Salvador clapped Krieg on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's see if they've decided where to land."

"Nothing shows on scans," Zero was saying as they came back into hearing range. "The ground below is empty Of any Vault clues."

"Then let's head for the other side of the planet," Maya suggested. "Maybe we'll pick something up over there."

Zero nodded. "And lower orbit May prove more useful to us In the search for Vaults," he added.

"Both good ideas," Gaige said. "Go ahead, Cassidy. Bring us in and closer."

The mottled blue world grew larger overhead as the ship moved towards the planet. "Gotta admit, I've never seen a world quite like this one," Axton said, staring up at it. "Blue, black, and white. It's weird not seeing any green or anything."

"How many planets you seen from orbit, _hermano?_"

"I lost count a long time ago," Axton said with a small laugh. "Ten years as a commando guarantees lots of space time." He sat in his recliner and stared up at the world. "It's kinda nice coming in like this."

"What do you mean?"

"No enemy fleets, no groundside weapons taking potshots at us, not even a satellite defense network." He laced his fingers behind his head and sighed contentedly as they drew closer to the line of darkness separating night and day below. "Don't get me wrong, I'm ready to get planetside and start shooting things again. It's just nice to know that for once in my life, I won't be taking fire before my boots hit the ground."

A bloom of orange light flashed into space, fiery petals bursting across the darkness.

"The _hell?!_"

"Explosion!" Cassidy's hands raced across the controls. "Space based blast, bearing one-three-eight!"

"Me and my big mouth," Axton growled.

"What are we looking at, Cass?" Gaige asked tightly. "Who's out here with us?"

"It seems to be two ships," Cassidy answered uncertainly. "There's also scores of smaller signals, but they're too tiny to be true starcraft."

"More explosions!" Salvador pointed as a myriad of small orange pinpricks dotted the stars. "Whoever they are, they're going all out."

"Is there any sign We have been detected yet?" Zero asked. "By either vessel?"

"They'll never spot this ship," Cassidy said firmly. "We ended our engine burn before exiting planetary eclipse, so our stealth systems ensure secrecy."

"Then that gives us time," Zero said calmly.

"Time?" Axton looked blankly at him. "For what?"

"To choose between helping one..." he turned and faced the group. "Or destroying both."

"You're kidding," Gaige finally managed to get out. "We don't even know who that is! Why are we talking about shooting them down already?"

"It's just being pragmatic," Maya assured her, catching on. "If it turns out it's a band of pirates firing on a colony ship, of course we won't take them both out. But if it were a Hyperion vessel fighting an Atlas warship..."

Zero nodded. "Good analogy."

"Well, when you put it _that_ way," Gaige conceded. "How about it, Cassidy? Can we get a decent view yet?"

Cassidy gave her head half a shake and ran her hands over the controls. "They're fighting pretty fiercely, but I think I can force a fair image..." A screen six feet wide and nearly as tall flashed into the air. "There!"

The orange pinpricks took on whole new meaning as the display came to life. The tiny points of light were the explosions of silver orbs, flying after a small craft that dodged and weaved valiantly through space. The small craft was mostly obscured by explosions and the sparks of lasers hitting its shields, and its own missile contrails.

Hovering over the cloud of explosions was another, far larger ship. It was all jagged angles and sharp points, and it was continuing to launch spheres after the smaller craft.

Axton let out a low whistle. "Well, whoever the little guy is, they sure picked the wrong opponent. That's an automated heavy cruiser."

"A what now?"

"It's a warship meant to be run by a skeleton crew, maybe one or two hundred," he said. "Those are drones it's launching at the smaller ship."

"Why is it bothering with drones?" Maya asked. "Doesn't it have guns?"

"Sure, but the cruiser is almost double _our_ size. It's designed to take on targets that aren't as maneuverable as the little guy," Axton said. "They could probably escape planetside before the warship could shoot 'em down. The drones can just keep them trapped up here and peck away at 'em until-" He broke off, getting to his feet and staring hard at the screen. "What the..."

"Axton?" Maya tapped his shoulder. "What is it?"

"Cassidy." Axton's voice and posture had gone equally stiff. "Can you give me a better picture of that little ship? Doesn't matter if it's live or not, I just need a better look at it."

She nodded and pressed a few keys. "Here."

A still image of the little ship flashed up. "I was right," Axton breathed. "That's a Dahl transport."

Everyone's eyes were on the screen now. "You're sure?" Salvador asked.

"I spent enough time in 'em," Axton said tightly. "I don't understand why it's going up against the cruiser _alone_, though. A transport like that is usually part of a convoy or something, not out in the middle of nowhere on its own. One couldn't even _get _way out here without extensive modif-"

He whirled around, and Maya caught a glimpse of something rare and disturbing in his eyes.

Fear.

"The side panel," he said breathlessly. "I need to see the side panel, _now_."

"Which-"

"Either, it doesn't matter! Hurry!"

A new image appeared, a blurry and distorted close up. Salvador squinted at it. "Can anyone read that?"

"It's not words," Axton said, and his voice had taken a tone that was somehow panicked, furious, and calm all at once. "It's a mural." He turned to Cassidy. "Can you get communications with that transport, without letting the warship know we're here?"

"Uh..." She checked one of her screens. "I can set up a laser link. That should let us communicate without the cruiser catching us."

"Do it." He bent over her shoulder, watching her work.

"What's going on here, Ax?" Gaige asked. "Why do you care about that transport? Because it's Dahl?"

"Dahl would execute me on sight," Axton said, still focusing on Cassidy's screen. "Only one other person cared if I got out of there alive, and that looks a _hell_ of a lot like her personal ship."

"Signal sent," Cassidy reported before Gaige could say anything else. "Try to talk now."

"Dahl transport, do you read me?" Axton's voice was tense but controlled. "Repeat, calling Dahl transport under fire, respond." He swallowed. "Sarah?" It was almost a whisper. "Are you there?"

Salvador frowned as Maya's eyes widened. He leaned in closer, lowering his voice. "Who's Sarah?"

Maya looked down to him. "His wife."

[_Axton?!_] A female voice came over the radio, disbelief and hope overflowing from it. [Is that really _you?_]

Axton let out a sigh of relief and put a hand over his eyes. "It's me, Sarah." He made an obvious attempt to get his thoughts together. "We're close by. What's your status?"

[Bad,] she answered grimly. [Shields down to thirty percent and falling, missile reserves lower than that, engines shaky, and we can't get clear of the drones! If we could just make it into the atmosphere-]

"Hold tight," Axton ordered. "I'm on my way."

[Wait! Where _are-_]

"Axton out!" The transmission cut off and he turned to Cassidy. "Are the shuttles prepped?"

"Ready and raring to go," she confirmed. "Why-"

"Hoooold on, Cassie," Gaige said, laying a hand on her shoulder. "You're not about to do something _monumentally _stupid, are you, Axton? Like, say, taking one of our dropships up against that whole warship and its armada of drones?"

He didn't even blink. "Yes."

"And for whatever reason, you aren't going to ask for help, are you?"

"It's got nothing to do with Vault hunting," Axton said. "No need for any of you to follow me in on this."

Gaige folded her arms and glared at him. "I seem to recall you chasing after me when I got kidnapped, and _that_ had nothing to do with Vault hunting. If you're in this, we're in it." She glanced around the room. "Am I right?"

Krieg thumped his chest. "Let's set fire to the sky!"

"Let's say that speaks for all of us and get to work," Maya said quickly. "What's the plan?"

"That warship is tough, but it's not even looking our way," Axton said, his words fast and clipped. "We can get off one good shot before it even knows we're here, maybe take out its guns with the first hit." He looked at Cassidy. "If not, you'll be in a slugging match with a ship twice our size. I know we've got the firepower to hold our own. Are your piloting skills up to the task?"

"A chance to clash in a cosmic contest?" She grinned. "Cool."

"Thanks." He turned back to the others. "The rest of us should split up three per shuttle, one pilot and two gunners each." He looked around, embarrassed. "Uh... I'll need a pilot."

"I will be your wings If you will be my sword arm," Zero offered, stepping forward. "Who would fly with us?"

"A far-flung warrior, seeking to save his lady fair?" Krieg threw his head back and roared. "How can I _not_ join your quest?!"

"Then you three take the _Osprey_ while Gaige, Sal and I use the _Red Tail,_" Maya said. She glanced at Gaige. "You _can_ fly it, right?"

"Of course!"

"Then let's move!"

Gaige took two steps towards the elevator, then doubled back and grabbed Cassidy in a quick hug. "Be careful, girl. There's a lot of adventuring left, so don't you lose this fight."

"Move without misgivings, M- Gaige," Cassidy said, squeezing her in return. "I'll mow down this monster."

Gaige nodded and raced to join the others as the elevator slid out of the floor. "So what's the plan?" she asked as they all piled in. "Three pronged assault on the warship?"

"That's not the top priority," Axton said, keying the lift for the hanger bay. "The warship can't hit the transport easily, and they _definitely _won't be able to hit a couple stealthships like our shuttles. Besides, with any luck Cassidy can keep it occupied while we help the Dahl transport. The big threat to us is the drones."

"Those little things?" Salvador scoffed. "We've killed worse in our sleep."

"_They're_ the ones doing all the shooting at the transport, and their guns _will _be able to target us," Axton bit out. "Plus, we're severely outnumbered."

"Yeah, but they're _stupid_," Gaige countered as the elevator slowed. "We should get at least one free pass at 'em before their AI realizes there's a new enemy in play."

The elevator halted and the doors slide open, revealing series of metal catwalks leading to a pair of rounded black metal humps. There was space for three, but one shuttle had been left on Pandora.

Axton was sprinting for the closer of the shuttles before the elevator doors were completely open. "Cassidy! Get ready to drop!"

[Aye aye, Axton!] A pair of loud _clangs_ resounded through the hanger bay. [Magnetic latches loosed. Get strapped into your shuttles.]

"Hold on!" Gaige yelped, diving through the hatch of the other shuttle and sprinting down the short hall to the cockpit. "No one's set up yet!"

[No worries,] Cassidy assured her. [ I've got one wicked assist worked up before you ambush the automated attackers.]

Gaige slid into the pilot's seat as Maya took the gunner seat on her left. Salvador was already settled into the right side, and had his targeting systems booted up. "Okay, _Red Tail_ crew in place. How about you, _Osprey?_"

[Ready over here,] Zero reported. [The battle intensifies. We must deploy _now_.]

Gaige pressed a few buttons and the shuttle's blast shield slid open, revealing the sky beyond. "_Whoa_."

Zero was right. The tiny specks of the drones had grown bigger as their ship had gotten closer, and the silvery dots filled the sky. The warship itself was even more intimidating, hovering over the battle like a metallic vulture.

[Is the transport still fighting?] Axton asked, his voice more tense than ever.

[Battling bravely, but beleaguered,] Cassidy reported. [She'll soon suffer defeat.] A low hum began to fill the air around them. [At least, she _would_... if we didn't unleash _this!_]

A massive salvo of purple energy beams lashed out at the warship, striking the larger vessel on its port quarter. The blast caught the ship completely unaware, slashing through its shields and incinerating a section of its outer hull armor.

"Linked fire," Gaige realized. "You fired both shuttle's guns _and_ the _Pearl's_ main cannon at the same time. Nice."

[And effective,] Cassidy reported. [Enemy engines at eighty percent. Now go save the small ship!]

"Launching now!" With a sudden lurch, the _Red Tail_ and _Osprey_ dropped away from the mothership and hurtled towards the firefight.

Maya shook her head and grabbed her gun controls. "Five minutes out here, and we're already in a firefight." Her mouth sharpened into a predator's smile. "I _knew_ I picked this planet for a reason."

* * *

><p><span>[And so it begins! I hope you'll enjoy this one as much as my others.]<br>

[Next week, the battle in the sky. Thanks for reading!]  
><span>


	2. No trench runs, no thermal exhaust ports

Salvador's forte was dual wielding. He'd tried it with every type of gun and every combination of guns. He thought he knew everything there was to know about fighting with two weapons at once.

But then, he'd never been in a space battle.

Salvador laughed wildly as purple energy blasts lanced out, exploding a handful of drones into shrapnel. "Oh, ho ho, _yes!_ This is the way to _fight!_" He whipped the fire control sticks over, tracking another cluster of drones. "So much _power!_"

"Make good use of it!" Maya warned, firing her own guns. "They're thick enough to walk on out here!"

"Yeah, but they've got nothing for maneuverability," Gaige snorted. She dodged around a cloud of debris and her own lasers speared through a cluster of bots. "Ha! Got another bunch!"

"I am _loving _these guns!" Salvador crowed. "Fifty-seven kills already! I'm gonna start carrying _these _around!"

[Screw the drones, has anyone got a read on the transport?!] Axton yelled. [I can't pick her up through all this fire!]

[Thee-one-five from your bearing,] Cassidy called back. The _Pearl_ raced by overhead, twisting wildly as it evaded and returned fire with the warship. [I'll try to tap them into our transmissions.]

[Sarah! Sarah, come in! We're cutting 'em down out here, just hang on!]

[Thanks for the assist, Ax, but I think it's too little too late,] the female voice replied grimly. [Weapons are almost used up, shields are down to twelve percent, and we're starting to get instabilities in the drive system. We can't do any more good in this fight, and we won't survive much longer as it is!]

"Can you get out?" Maya called out, firing another salvo. "If we clear a path, can you make it to the planet?"

[Who are you?]

"Never mind _that_, can you make it?!"

Something that sounded nastily like an explosion crackled over the radio. [No choice but to try!] The battered transport's engines sputtered, turning the ship's nose towards the blue sphere below. [You clear a path between us and the planet, I'll go for an emergency landing!]

[We're closer, we've got it!] They watched as the _Osprey_ swung around the transport, gunning for the drone cloud between it and the planet. Several groups of machines blasted apart, and the transport began to move-

Salvador lunged at the radio. "Ax, watch behind you!"

The _Osprey's_ fire had all been directed forward, dedicated to clearing a path. A single drone was outside their firing arc, and it streaked towards the shuttle's port side with all its speed.

Zero threw the shuttle into a dive, engines burning against space. The drone missed the shuttle's body, but crashed into the tail end, sending the _Osprey _spinning.

[No good.] The woman's voice was controlled but disappointed. [The gap's not big enough, and more drones are moving in.]

"You guys all right?!"

[Some engine damage, _And_ we failed to clear the way!] Zero reported angrily. [It's up to you, _Red!_]

Gaige exhaled sharply. "Right. Hang on, guys!" The ship surged forward as she rammed full power to the engines.

[What are you _doing?!_] Now it was shock and disbelief filling the woman's voice. [If a drone rams you while you're moving at that speed-]

"They _won't_," Gaige cut her off. "Guns forward, guys! Make this count!"

"Oh, we _got _this one!" Salvador leaned on the trigger and filled space with laserfire. "_Everything _must die!"

Maya said nothing, her eyes focused on the wave of enemies around them. Drones fell under the combined fire like wheat before a scythe.

"One more cluster!" Gaige cut loose with her forward mounted guns, and the last grouping of drones detonated. "The way's clear, but there's more coming in! Get out of here before they get a lock!"

[_Behind y-_]

A blast of green laserfire stabbed the transport's side, throwing it into a tailspin and cutting off their transmission. Gaige threw the shuttle into a hard spin, searching for the source of the fire... and found it.

The warship hung overhead, a small gun pivoting away from the crashing transport. Its _big_ guns were already glowing with energy as they charged.

The _Red Tail's_ daring move had cleared the way for the transport, but the warship had caught up to them. They were directly beneath its cannons.

A small, disbelieving laugh forced its way out of Maya's throat. "Looks like Ax was wrong."

Salvador leaned on his gun's trigger, but the warship didn't even seem to notice his fire. "We gotta get clear, _hermana!_"

"I'm trying! We're dead center of their firing arc!"

[Hang on, Mom! I'm moving to-]

The warship fired. A cascade of energy blazed towards the tiny, vulnerable shuttle-

"_No._"

The stream of green energy split like water around a rock. The space around the shuttle was filled with eye-searing light, but the lethal torrents of energy bypassed the _Red Tail_ entirely, not even grazing its shields.

Gaige's jaw dropped open. "_Holy_-"

The lasers expended their charge, the green light fading as it raced harmlessly away, but the warship wasn't finished with them yet. The glow began to flare back to life-

"_I said NO._"

A massive sphere of energy, nearly as big as the _Pearl _itself, flared around the warship's center. Gaige stared in disbelief as the drones all around them suddenly flew at the warship, many of them clearly struggling against some massive force.

There was no resisting this. Hundreds of metal spheres unwillingly rammed their mothership, smashing into brilliant explosions and cratering the warship's midsection. As the last of the drones unwillingly crashed to their destruction, the energy sphere pulsed violently, and the biggest explosion yet ripped outward from the warship's hull. The blast threw the vessel into an uneven spin, and it spiraled away towards the planet, engines flickering as it tried to regain control of itself.

For a long minute, no one said anything. All they could do was watch the crippled vessel spiraling downward, trailing smoke and clearly fighting for any control. Finally, in a very shaky voice, Gaige said, "Well, they can't shoot us now, at least."

"Nope." Salvador looked across the cockpit, eyes gleaming as he looked at their rescuer. "How did you do _that?_"

Maya couldn't answer. She could only sit, frozen, her left hand thrown out in a clenched fist, staring at the emptiness before them.

"Maya?" Gaige snapped her fingers in front of her eyes. "You in there?"

No reaction.

"Maya!" Salvador clambered out of his seat and darted across the small space, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Come on, _ojos azules_. You got 'em. Come on back."

"I'm... I'm here, Sal." Maya took a deep breath, and Salvador could feel her muscles loosening slightly under his hands. She unclenched her hand and smiled at him. "Thanks. I'm okay now."

"You sure?" Gaige asked nervously. "That was a hell of a thing."

"No kidding," Salvador agreed. "_How_ did you-"

"I have _no _idea," Maya said, stretching her fingers. She stared at her palm as if she expected it to talk. "I just... reacted."

"One hell of a reaction," Salvador managed. "I'm gonna have to make sure I don't piss you off anymore."

She smiled faintly. "Don't worry."

[Gaige! Gaige, do you read?! What _was _that?!]

"Tell you later, Ax," Gaige said uncertainly, turning back to her instruments. "You've gotta hear this one from the source."

[What the hell does _that-_]

"I'm showing all the drones destroyed," Gaige interrupted. "What about you?"

[I can confirm that,] Zero reported. [No machines remain with us. The warship itself...]

"Yeah, we see it," Salvador said. "It's all _kinds_ of messed up and dropping like a brick."

"Not quite a brick, but definitely not a feather, either," Gaige said, checking her controls. "It looks like they lost guns, attitude control, their drone management systems, plus scattered damage across the whole midsection of the vessel."

[Tell me they'll burn up in the atmosphere,] Axton said savagely.

"Sorry to disappoint, but that is one _tough _ship." She gave Maya an apologetic look. "They still have enough stability for an emergency landing. It'll be a rough ride, but they'll probably survive."

Maya leaned over Gaige's shoulder. "What about you guys?" She asked. "How badly were you hit?"

[Some engine damage,] Zero said. [We're docking with the _Grinder_ To begin repairs.]

"All right, good plan. Let me just check on the transport..." Gaige turned back to her console, searching for the damaged ship.

Salvador looked back at Maya. "Seriously, though. How long have you been able to do _that?_"

Maya shook her head. "I'm not sure I _could_ do it before now, Sal. Think back on all the big enemies we've fought. You'd think at least one of them would've prompted this kind of response."

"Maybe they just-"

"Son of a _bitch!_"

Maya and Salvador were thrown back into their seats as the _Red Tail _suddenly went into a hard turn, its engines firing at full power. "Gaige, what the-"

"It's the transport!" Gaige yelled. "They're going down _hard!_"

"_How _hard?!"

"According to sensors, they can't survive re-entry." Gaige's knuckles were white as she gripped the controls. "If they're gonna land, we've gotta help!"

The shuttle was starting to rumble as the atmosphere thickened around them and buffeted the hull. "Shouldn't we wait for the _Fiery Pearl?_" Maya asked, shouting over the noise.

"With the _Osprey's _engines hit, docking will take them at _least_ a few minutes! The transport will have crashed by then!"

"Can we save them alone?"

"No idea!" Gaige yelled back. "I just know after almost getting shot to pieces for these guys, I'm not letting 'em crash without a fight!"

Salvador squinted through orange glow leaking up from beneath the ship. "Can you see them?"

"No, but you can!" She pointed to his monitor. "Targeting sensors! Scan for anything metal!"

"On it!" Salvador ran his eyes over the scope, searching for any sign of the transport. Outside, the glow of friction increased, the sky beginning to lighten from black to blue.

"I've got them!" Maya yelled. "Four degrees port, about ten seconds ahead of us!"

"Okay, hang on!" Gaige punched in a series of commands, and the shuttle changed direction slightly. "Hold tight, you two! I'm gonna have to try something kinda crazy!"

"What-"

The _Red Tail_ surged liked a spurred horse, and all three Hunters were held immobile in their seats by incredible force. The intense pressure locked them into place for seven eternity-length seconds, then slacked off, the noise of re-entry fading with it.

Salvador gasped for air as his lungs were allowed to work again. "What was _that?_"

"I fired the main drive in atmosphere," Gaige said, her own voice a little blurry. "That breaks like a million different safety rules, but we couldn't catch 'em if I hadn't." She pointed out the window. "There they are!"

The little transport was definitely in trouble. The ship was in a chaotic spin, its engines dark as it pinwheeled down.

"Dammit!" Gaige slapped the console in frustration. "This isn't going to work!"

"Why not?" Salvador asked. "We caught up."

"I wanted to use our magnetic grappling lines to slow them down, but they're _completely_ out of control! They'll crash into us or rip our hull in two if I-"

"Hold on." Maya stretched her hand towards the window and the transport beyond. Her tattoos began to glow.

Gaige looked at her doubtfully. "What are-"

"Just be ready. Don't distract me." Maya closed her eyes and tried to reach just barely into the strange place her mind went when she called on her abilities. Lashing out with her full strength would only destroy the ship. She needed to hold it, to slow it down...

"_Madre de dios!_"

Maya opened her eyes. The transport was frozen in mid-air, immobilized in a faint yellow-purple sphere of energy. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the blue markings on her arms were blazing more intensely than any other time in her life.

Her arm also felt like lead. "I've...got it..." She gritted her teeth. "For now..."

Gaige shook her head in disbelief. "I don't know how you're doing that, but keep it up! I'm moving in to fire the anchors!"

Maya nodded, her jaw clenched. She didn't trust herself to speak. She didn't trust herself to _blink. _The skin on her left arm had begun to feel strangely hot. It was also prickling, as if she were being jabbed with a thousand tiny needles.

_Hang on_. Salvador was staring at the transport, his knuckles white as he gripped his chair. _You've fought through worse than this. You can hold it._

_You've got this, Pretty Lady._ For some reason, Krieg's voice came to her mind. _You can do anything._

Maya's eyes narrowed, and her focus sharpened. The pain dropped out of her left arm, and the burning stopped. The weight was still there, but it was more bearable-

"Firing anchors!" A pair of muffled _thunks _rippled through the hull, and Gaige punched the air in triumph. "Got 'em! We're tethered!" She ran her hands over the controls. "I'm-"

Maya cried out as what felt like a ton of weight slammed down on her arm. Her tattoos went dark, and the field holding the ship vanished.

The transport's downward momentum was restored in one brutal rush. It plummeted towards the ground, dragging the smaller _Red Tail_ with it.

Salvador gripped the arms of his chair as the shuttle rattled and bucked around them. An ominous groan of strained metal began to fill the air. _"Gaige!"_

"I'm trying!" she yelled. "They've got twice our mass and a _hell_ of a lot of speed! We don't have the engine power to stop it!" Her hands raced over the controls, desperately seeking an answer. "Maya, if you've got any other tricks...!"

"I... think I'm out." It was all Maya could do to hold on to her seat. She felt winded and dizzy, unable to keep any focus in the turbulent ride.

"Then I don't have a choice!" Gaige's hand moved towards a red button. "I have to cut the anchors before-"

A shadow fell over both ships as the vast, circular hull of the _The Fiery Pearlescent Meat Grinder _eclipsed the sun and matched its speed with the imperiled ships. [Get clear, Gaige! I've got them!]

"Nice timing, kid!" Gaige hit the button with determination instead of regret. "Detaching cables!" With another pair of metallic _clanks_, the shuttle broke free of the transport, regaining its stability almost instantly. "We're loose! Go!"

The _Pearl_ moved quickly, sliding closer to the transport, dwarfing the smaller craft. The underside of the hull glowed an electric blue, and the transport's spin slowed, slowed... stopped.

Gaige let out a shaky sigh of relief as the _Pearl _began to slow its descent as well, moving through the atmosphere at a much more controlled pace. "Smart girl, using the magnetic docking field to catch the ship like that." She beamed at the _Pearl _as they pulled back, hovering about a hundred yards above the ship's dome. Then her smile faded, and she sighed and rubbed her face. "Good thing they showed up, though." She looked at the red button guiltily. "I... I was about to..."

"You didn't," Salvador interrupted. "And no one would've blamed you if you had, not even Axton."

"Nothing you could have done," Maya agreed. "That last part was my fault." She rubbed her shoulder. The pain was completely gone, and the feeling had started to return to her arm. "I tried something I'd never even thought of before, without considering what could happen if I lost it."

"It might not have worked perfectly, but it _did_ help," Gaige assured her. She sounded a little more confident. "It gave us time to _try_ and tether 'em, to say nothing of letting the _Pearl_ catch up."

"Real day for firsts, huh?" Salvador asked with a grin. "I never fought space robots before, you" he patted Gaige's shoulder "never wrangled a spaceship before, and _you_" his grin widened as he looked at Maya "never Phaselocked a warship before."

A smile crept onto Gaige's lips. "That _was _a pretty awesome trick."

Maya couldn't help but smile as well. Salvador's good humor was infectious. "It _felt_ pretty awesome." She flexed her left fingers and ran her right hand over her tattoos. "I wonder if I can do it again..."

"_I_ wouldn't mind seeing it again," Gaige agreed. "Now, what was it you did with the transport?"

"What do you mean?"

"That wasn't a standard Phaselock, was it? There's usually all kinds of weird energy floating around in there, but this time..."

"Nothing but the ship itself," Maya confirmed. "I figured that if I can usually create a bubble of energy from another universe, I might be able to create an _empty_ bubble that would hold the ship until we could secure them." She sighed. "Didn't quite work."

"Almost did," Salvador pointed out. "How'd you come up with it?"

Maya opened her mouth, then closed it again, frowning. "That's... actually a really good question. I don't know where the idea came from." She rubbed her temple. "I appreciate your encouragement, though. It helped me hold on a little longer."

"When did I-" He broke off as Gaige's console started beeping. "What's that, _hermana_?"

Gaige turned back to the console. "The results of a sensor scan I started running on the transport. They looked pretty banged up and I wanted to see if we could do anything for them."

"Any good news?"

Gaige went pale. "No, not good! _Extremely _bad!" She hit the radio. "Axton! The transport's power core is spiking! The ship's gonna blow!"

No answer.

"Axton! Zero! Cassidy!" Gaige pounded the console, but the radio stayed eerily silent. "_Anyone?!_"

"What's going on?" Maya demanded. "Why don't they answer?"

"I don't know! There's nothing wrong with-" Gaige broke off, mouth dropping open as she stared at the _Pearl_ in disbelief. "What the _hell?!_"

The transport was no longer obscured by the hull of their vessel, and the dome was gone. Instead, a plate of intensely black metal stared up at them. The _Osprey_ was just visible, attached to one side of the plate like an inverted remora.

Their ship was flying upside down.

* * *

><p><span>[I got no quips this week, so I'll just offer a heartfelt message of appreciation to everyone that's read andor reviewed my new little foray: YOUR KIND WORDS ARE APPRECIATED!]

[(Incidentally, harsh words are also welcomed and appreciated if you note any error.)]

[Next time, the extraction and retrieval attempt. Thanks for reading!]


	3. Saving (not actually a) Private Sarah

"We can't let that ship explode!" Axton's fists tightened uselessly around his controls. "Can you do _anything_ to stop it from there?"

[I don't think I can dissuade detonation,] Cassidy warned. [We should settle for saving the survivors!]

"Can we reach the ground Before the detonation?" Zero's hands played over the flight controls as he guided the _Osprey _next to the transport. "How long do we have?"

[Not long enough to extract the survivors _and_ elude... the explosion...]

Axton's eyebrows went up. He'd known Gaige to use that tone before. "You just got an idea, didn't you?"

[I might have an inkling,] Cassidy reported back. [Are you all up for an air-to-air rescue attempt?]

"A _what?_"

[I'm going to rotate the ship around our rescuee,] Cassidy said, her voice distracted. [I can maintain its position with our magnetic field. You three could traverse our hull and try to extract the trapped men.]

"Hull walk from our shuttle to the transport, climb inside, get the survivors out and aboard our ship before their engines blow?" Axton unstrapped himself from his seat. "What are we waiting for?"

[Stand by. Starting rotation.]

"Zero, ready the medbay hatch." Axton started for the door. "Tell Cassidy that if I'm not out before she can cut the transport loose and make safe distance, just drop the transport. I'm not risking _our_ ship and you all for my personal life."

"The door is unsealed," Zero said. He stood and stepped away from his console. "But you'd have a better chance With me at your side."

"The lone wolf dies in winter!" Krieg snarled, getting to his feet. "The pack survives!"

Axton gave a tiny, disbelieving laugh. "Man, if this works, I am gonna owe you guys a _lake_ of beer. Come on!"

"Where on the transport Should we look for survivors?" Zero asked as they headed into the medical bay. "Where _could_ they survive?"

"At this point, they're probably scattered throughout the ship." Axton slid the door open and hurried to the hatch. "With the amount of damage they've taken, everyone except _maybe _Sarah had to have been on damage control."

"And Rapunzel?" Krieg growled. "Where's her tower?"

"Hopefully the cockpit. It's her personal ship, I can't imagine she'd let anyone else fly it into battle." Axton hit the comm box next to the door. "We're ready, Cass! What's your status?"

[We're oriented to allow access, and our altitude will allow you to survive if you're swift,] she answered tightly. [Get going before their engines explode!]

"Right!" Axton punched the door controls.

[Just watch out for the-]

A gale force wind slammed through the door, and a vicious cold snapped at the Hunters. Axton seized the doorframe with both hands and heaved, throwing himself against the wind and out of the shuttle. His feet slammed onto the metal of the hull, and he looked towards the shuttle hatch.

For a second, his mind refused to reconcile what it was seeing. Krieg and Zero were tensed, ready to leap out of the door, but from Axton's perspective, they were on the shuttle's _ceiling._ He shook his head to clear it and looked away. _Variable gravity is a _bitch_ sometimes. _"Come on!" he yelled, not even sure if his voice would carry over the wind. "We've gotta move!" He leaned against the buffeting air, struggling to make headway towards the transport.

A heavy _thump_ echoed up through his boots, and he felt a thick hand on his jacket collar. Before he could process anything else, Krieg had scooped him off the deck and was running full tilt at the transport, his raw muscle overwhelming the wind. Zero kept tightly in his wake, effectively dodging the wind and letting him keep pace with Krieg.

They reached the transport's rear hatch in thirty seconds._ C_assidy had maneuvered the _Pearl_ with expert grace, putting the transport just barely a foot above their hull. Krieg set Axton down by the hatch and jabbed his hand at a keypad next to the door. "Open sesame, Ali Baba!" He slapped his buzz axe into his palm. "Or do I get to play can opener?"

"Don't think you'll need to," Axton shouted. _So long as I actually get the date right this time. And she didn't change the door code._ He punched in six numbers, and the access light flashed from red to green. _Sentimental gal._ "Let's go!"

The door slid upward with the reluctant _screech _of tortured metal and halted about halfway up its tracks, but it was enough for everyone to duck under. Axton coughed as he rolled into ship, the stink of ozone and smoke forcing its way into his nostrils. "We're in, Cass. How long have we got?"

[Not long! Hurry!]

"Right." He clicked off and glanced around the room, trying to get his bearings. "Yeah, this is the cargo hold." His expression sobered as he looked more closely. "Usually, anyway."

The hold was wrecked. Equipment lay strewn about, tossed everywhere by the chaotic ride. Sparks cascaded from shattered computer panels, and a section of bulkhead had collapsed, half-concealing a door.

"That's where we need to go," Axton said grimly, motioning at the door. "Let's get this thing clear."

Krieg cracked his knuckles and flexed his neck. "Here comes the bulldozer!"

"Too time consuming," Zero admonished. "Why move what you can destroy?" His blade flashed into existence.

Three slashes later, there wasn't even a door left.

Zero slipped his sword hilt back onto his belt. "The way is now clear."

Krieg folded his arms and glared at him. "Showboat."

"Save it, you two!" Axton dashed through the hole Zero had cut and into the narrow passageway beyond. "The bridge should be up a deck and- oh, _damn_."

Krieg muscled his way after Axton. "Find the wolf with its throat torn out?"

"Close enough." Axton stood up from a crouch. "There's at least one crewman we don't have to worry about. Let's go find the others."

Zero wormed his way into the passage and followed Krieg. He didn't even glance at the uniformed man pinned to the bulkhead by a metal pipe through his chest. "How many crewmen Are on a transport like this? Can we save them all?"

"Not if this were a standard issue transport, but Sarah retrofit her ship for skeleton crewing." Axton climbed over another piece of debris and ducked under a collapsed light fixture. "Ah, damn it. Here's another one." The man lay dead, his skin blackened and smoking. "Looks like an electrical fire got him. Come on."

Krieg grunted as he squeezed through the narrow space. "Only the princess matters to the plumber."

"Damn right," Axton snapped. "Whoever else is on board, I don't know them. This ship was our- _her_ home whenever she wasn't on mission. I don't even know why she was out here in it."

[Leave that for later!] Cassidy yelled. [The craft is critical! You've only got a matter of minutes!]

"We're almost at the bridge, just hang on!" Axton reached a set of double doors and hit the keypad.

The doors didn't even twitch.

"Don't you do this, you bastard!" Axton hit the keypad again, then kicked at the door. "Come on, we've got to get this open!"

Krieg glanced at Zero. "May I have this dance?"

Zero simply tipped his head.

"Time for the can opener!" Krieg pulled his axe off his back and started for the door. "Step back, Captain Miller!"

Axton looked over his shoulder and pinned himself to wall as Krieg lunged at the door, laughing wildly and hacking at the metal. Sparks flew as his axe chewed through the metal, leaving deep gashes in its wake. Krieg bashed the door a handful of times, then punched at the weakened area, ramming his fist through as if it were wet paper. With a roar more of exhilaration than effort, he forced the doors apart, leaving the way clear.

Krieg stepped aside, panting, and motioned to the door. "Your car, Master Bruce."

"Thanks, Krieg." Axton ran through the door.

Zero ran his gaze over the mangled doors. "Crude, but effective."

"I prefer to beat my opponents the old fashioned-way," Krieg growled. "_Brutally_."

"Sarah!" Axton yelled, searching around the mangled bridge. "Sarah, where are y-" His voice cut off as his searching gaze fell on a body strapped into a seat. Shrapnel was embedded up and down the torso from where a console had exploded outward. The blast had obliterated almost every feature, but it had clearly been female once. _Dear god, don't let me find her like that. Don't let that _be _her._

"Another of the flock's sheep," Krieg rumbled, looking over Axton's shoulder. "Where's the bellwether?"

"Still looking," Axton said shortly. "Zero, what about you? Any chance that medical scanner of yours can pick anything up?"

Zero shook his head. "Its range is quite short. I have seen _no_ life at all Since we came aboard."

"She's got to be here somewhere!" Axton cupped his hands around his mouth. "Sarah! Sarah, can you hear me?!"

"Uhh..."

All three Hunters whipped around at the faint moan. "Over there!" Axton scrambled for a small hatch in the wall, half buried by debris. "Someone's alive in here!" He started tearing at the fallen metal, hurling aside fragments of the shattered ship.

Krieg seized an I-beam as thick around as his arm and tossed it away like a twig. "What's this hobbit hole?"

"Escape pod," Axton said tightly. "Whoever's in here must have decided to try and bail, but couldn't get clear in time." He glanced at Zero. "Can you get any kind of a read on this one? Enough to tell if it's even her?"

Zero stared at the round hatch for a second before answering. "It _is_ a woman, And seriously injured." He grabbed another piece of metal and heaved it away. "We need to hurry."

"Almost..._there!_" The door to the pod was clear. Axton pressed his face to the shattered remains of a tiny round window mounted on the door. "_It's her!_" He pounded furiously on the door. "Sarah! Sarah, wake up!"  
>"Scan shows she's suffered A serious concussion," Zero said grimly, pulling his sword. "She won't awaken." He turned to Krieg. "I'll cut and you pull?"<p>

Krieg punched his fist into his palm. "Long live the team!"

Axton rolled out of the way as Zero plied his blade against the hatch. "Cass, we're almost done here. Are we getting back in through the _Osprey?_"

[No, utilize the underside hatch! I've got it unsealed and open! Now _hurry the hell up!_]

"Roger!" He crouched next to Krieg, seizing a handhold on the door. "Ready? One, two, THREE!"

The escape pod's door was heavier than expected, but Krieg's muscle and Axton's adrenaline still hurled it halfway across the bridge.

Axton was into the tiny pod in a flash. "Give me a second! She's strapped in!" He pulled his tomahawk and began sawing through the restraint harness' straps.

He tried to ignore the dark wet stain covering half her uniform, the matted red mass of normally yellow hair, the bizarre angle of her left arm, and the bruising that covered half her face. _She'll be fine. She'll be fine. We'll get her to the medbay, and she _will_ be fine. _

The last restraint severed, and Sarah rolled into his arms. "Okay, I've got her! Let's get out of here!"

"Stay behind the steamroller!" Krieg charged towards the hall, laughing and swinging his axe madly.

Zero took a second to place a hand on the woman in Axton's arms. "_Severe_ injuries. She needs the medical bay _Immediately_."

"Then let's move it!" Axton sprinted after Krieg as fast as he dared while cradling his critically injured wife. "Getting through the debris could be tricky. I hope we've still got enough..." He trailed off and stared at the hallway. "_Whoa_. He wasn't kidding about the steamroller thing."

The path from the bridge to the cargo bay, while still cluttered by debris, now had a supersized-Krieg pathway cleared through it. Just visible standing on the hull, normal-sized Krieg waved his arm at them. "Light's green!"

Axton sprinted down the hallway, Zero at his heels. He jumped out of the transport and just barely had time to register that the air had somehow gotten even colder before his radio squawked at him. [Get inside the ship _now, _you lunatic! Move it!]

He spotted Gaige sticking halfway out of a door in the hull, waving her arms at him frantically. Krieg was standing beside her, holding a hatch open and yelling something he couldn't make out. Axton headed for them as fast as he could, barely noticing the wind had died down.

Krieg scooped Sarah's limp body out of his arms as he got closer to the door. "Go through for the handoff!"

"What are you-"

"Just get _in _here!" Gaige seized the front of his jacket and hauled him bodily through the hatch.

Axton felt a disorienting sensation as his body tried to compensate for an instant reversal of gravity. He blinked and threw out a hand to catch the wall. "Okay, now I get it."

"Well, get _her_ now!" Gaige snapped. Sarah's legs were coming through the small opening as Krieg 'lowered' her from one gravity plane to another.

"Right, on it!" Axton eased Sarah in the rest of the way, holding her limp form in his arms again. "Zero says she needs the medbay. Are-"

"Yeah, yeah, we're good, just go!"

Axton ran for the door and found Maya standing there. She slapped the control pad, opening the way into the hall so he wouldn't have to break stride. "Is there anyone else coming?"

"No one from her ship," Axton said grimly. "Everyone else we found was killed in the battle." He grimaced slightly as he rounded the corner into the hall. "I _hope_ we found everyone, but I wasn't waiting around to check."

"Then I'm coming with you," Maya said, laying her tattooed hand on Sarah's bleeding forehead. "I thought I might have to stay to triage anyone else, but if she was the only survivor..."

"Yeah." Axton grimaced again and slowed his pace slightly as Maya's tattoos began to glow, healing energies flowing down her arm and onto Sarah's body. "Thanks, Maya."

"Anything for the family of a friend." She glanced up. "We still shouldn't take too long to get her to the medical bay. I don't know if that power boost extends to my healing powers, and I _certainly_ don't want to test it on your wife."

"Ex-wife, technically." Axton frowned. "Power boost?"

"Later," Maya said absently. "I'm concentrating." She grinned. "But I can't _wait_ to tell you about it once we're safe."

* * *

><p><span>[Given the short nature of this chapter, another will be up...now.]<span>


	4. Think modem meets cat in a tumble dryer

Zero slipped through the hatch and landed next to Gaige. "I'm in, Cassidy!"

[I hear you, hang on!]

Salvador crouched next to Gaige and Zero, staring out the small square at the sky 'below'. "So what now?"

"We got his wife, but we've _also_ still got a time-bomb strapped to our underbelly," Gaige said tightly. "We've got to get rid of it and get _away_ before it blows!"

"So what's the plan to-" He stopped as the sky twisted away, and bluish-white ground replaced it. "So... are we rightside up again?"

Despite the dire situation, Gaige still managed to grin at his discomfort. "Yes, you can relax now. Cassidy just flipped the ship over so we can drop the transport and fly away."

"But I didn't feel anything." He looked around. "And nothing moved."

"Variable gravity," Gaige explained, looking back at the ground. "This ship makes it own g-field, holding everything in place no matter what. It's not easy in a natural environment like a planet, but it's doable with the right tech."

Salvador leaned away from the door and put a hand to his head. "Ugh. Give me nice, simple machines like a gun _any_ day."

"Worry about up and down when we're not on the grill!" Krieg snarled. "What about the sun?!"

"He's right!" Gaige looked up at the ceiling. "How about it, Cass? What's the deal on the transport?"

[I just ditched it,] Cassidy said in a relieved tone. [We're departing with all due haste. We should be clear of any detonation... now.]

"Great. I'm heading up to the bridge." She glanced around the room. "You guys wanna come? Not every day you get to see a starship explode in a planet's atmosphere."

Salvador's eyes brightened. "A space battle _and _a nuclear blast? Best day ever!"

Fifteen minutes later, Salvador was staring out at the horizon with his arms crossed and a disgruntled expression. "You know, I _was_ promised an explosion."

"And I expected one by now." Gaige looked at Cassidy in confusion. "Any idea why that thing hasn't blown?"

Cassidy was frowning as she looked over various holo-screens. "I'm not certain, but it seems a split-second longshot might have saved the ship."

"Longshot? What longshot?"

Cassidy pointed out the dome to the snowy ground, some hundred feet below them. "We ended up arriving over the arctic, so I tossed the transport into the tundra. I thought maybe the cold could belay the blast."

"Mmmmm..." Gaige made a doubtful face as she looked towards the horizon. "I dunno. That wasn't just a thermal problem. The reactor was going _crazy. _They had energy spikes everywhere. Those would have to be stabilized before you could even _try_ to stop the explosion." She looked over the top of Cassidy's chair to Zero and Krieg. "Do either of you know how to fix a fusion reactor?"

Kreig scratched his head. "I can stab your problems in their brains," he offered.

"Maybe later." She glanced at Zero. "I assume that goes for you, too?"

"We barely had time To rescue Axton's ex-wife," Zero said flatly. "No reactor work."

Gaige crossed her arms and looked back out at the horizon in puzzlement. "So why didn't it blow?" She chewed her lower lip for a minute. "Cassie, how long would it take us to get back to its crash site?"

"No." Cassidy shook her head emphatically. "No, no, no, _no. _I am _not_ nearing a known hazard in our home."

"Oh, come on!" Gaige complained. "That transport should've gone up ten minutes ago! If it hasn't done it by now, it's probably not going to."

"'Probably' would be The most important word there," Zero pointed out. "It doesn't mean '_won't_.'"

Salvador nodded. "You use guns all the time, _hermana. _You know what a hangfire is."

"Don't let the sun blow up on me," Krieg agreed.

Gaige tossed up her hands. "Fine, fine," she huffed. "I can't believe _none_ of you have any mechanical curiosity, though."

"Not when satisfying said curiosity sacrifices the ship's safety," Cassidy pointed out. "To say nothing of _ours._"

"Fair enough," Gaige conceded with a sigh. She was silent for a minute, staring out at the horizon. Then, "How about if we go up?"

"What?"

"Well, you don't want to get closer, right?" Gaige pointed to the top of the dome. "Okay. Let's go _up_ instead. Higher altitude means a better line of sight, so it's easier to do a scan. Might get us _something_ useful."

Zero sighed. "Such an obsession With an unfamiliar ship. Why not forget it?"

"Because the laws of physics and mechanical engineering do _not_ just reverse themselves at random," Gaige said flatly. "That ship_ should _have blown up. _Something_ stopped the reactor overload, and we should find out _what_." She shrugged. "Besides, what else have we got to do? Huddle around a recovery table in the medbay? I'm sure Axton would just _love _us all crowding around him and his ex-wife. And if she's anything like him, I bet she'd be _thrilled_ to find out we've all been hovering over her, just waiting for her wake up."

There was a long pause as everyone glanced around at each other uncertainly, then Cassidy pulled up the flight controls. "Activating ascent systems." Her fingers danced across the controls. "I'll set us for about sixty miles," she offered. "We should be able to scan _both_ ships from that stance."

"A sound decision," Zero agreed. "Turning your back on a foe Gets you blindsided."

"Unless your god-like siren buddy psychically kicked your foe in the nuts," Gaige retorted. "Give me a quick scan on the transport, Cass. We'll take a detailed look at the warship next."

Cassidy waved her hands over her controls. "Image up."

Salvador whistled as holoscreens showing the damaged ship flashed into the air around them. "I've seen bandits that looked better after going three rounds with me while I was drunkzerking." He glanced at Cassidy. "Was that from us dropping it in the snow?"

"A minor amount," Cassidy said grimly. "That ship was shot up six ways to Sunday."

"And a few more for good measure," Gaige agreed. "Can you get any read on the status?"

Cassidy nodded as she read her screen. "Power levels are perceptibly dropping to a less problematic range." She looked up at Gaige from her seat. "It should be safe if you'll stand by for several more hours..."

"So not only is the reactor _not_ going to explode, it's _stabilizing?_" Gaige demanded.

"Um... yes..."

"Son of a BITCH!" She grabbed the light screen and spun it around, glaring at the details displayed there. "What the _hell_ is going on with you, you bastard ship?!" She began to type furiously on the screen. "Show me your secrets, you little-"

"Forget the minnow!" Krieg snarled. "Let's see the barracuda!"

"You guys have fun with that," Gaige muttered irritably. "_I'm_ going over these damned readings until I _find_ something." She plopped down on her beanbag and kept punching the holographic keys, still scowling at the display.

Cassidy looked at Zero uncertainly. "Should I..."

"Show us the warship," he instructed. "A mystery should not draw Focus from a threat."

"Screw you, Z," Gaige yelled amiably, not looking up from her screen.

Salvador shook his head and chuckled. "Show us the big one, _pilota. _I wanna see it, too."

A large screen flashed into the air, and the enemy appeared. The warship had crashed in a small valley, ringed on all sides by rolling, tree-covered mountains. It had managed to land mostly on its belly, mowing down a wide swath of forest as it ripped a sizable furrow into the ground. Thick trees were strewn everywhere like so many toothpicks. Several fires dotted the area with dense plumes of smoke rising into the air.

"Damn." Salvador folded his arms and stared at the display. "Can't believe Maya did all that with her brain." He glanced sideways at Krieg. "She's one scary lady to love, no?"

Krieg gave a low snarl and dropped into a crouch. "Can't ride the lightning without risking electrocution." He punched his fists together. "And I _like _the tingle!"

"Might wanna wear-"

The rest of Salvador's sentence was cut off by an eruption of sound, a horrible screeching, rasping wail that echoed around the dome. Salvador and Krieg both clamped their hands over their ears, trying to block out the mind-rattling noise. "The hell is that?!"

He could barely hear his own voice over the sound. Through tearing eyes, he saw Gaige abandon her sensor screen and cover her own ears, shouting something as she clambered over to them.

Even Zero and Cassidy seemed affected. Zero's hand's were still at his sides, but his helmet display read **:s** . Cassidy's mouth was also screwed into a grimace, but her eyes bore an intense look of concentration.

A metal hand suddenly clutched her shoulder. "_Cass!_" Gaige appeared to be shouting at the top of her lungs, and still Salvador could barely hear her. "_Shut it off!_"

Cassidy blinked and glanced around at the others. Her eyes widened as she saw their pained expressions, and she quickly pressed a few buttons. The shriek died out, leaving a ringing echo in Salvador's ears.

He cracked his jaw, trying to clear his head. "What _was_ that?"

"A coded signal Sent by the fallen warship," Zero said grimly. "They cry out for aid."

"Aid? What do-" Gaige broke off and stared at Zero. "You _understood_ that noise?"

"Some." Zero tapped the side of his helmet. "My suit is equipped With decryption protocols." He shook his head and folded his arms. "Couldn't get it all."

"You said they were calling for help, _amigo?_" Salvador asked.

"Yes."

"From who?" Gaige demanded. "There's no one else _on_ this planet."

"Unfortunately, that's untrue."

They glanced down at Cassidy. One hand was pressed to an ear, her eyes were closed, her mouth twisted again, and a screen in front of her was displaying an ugly jagged line.

Gaige bent over to peer at the screen. "Is that the transmission?"

Cassidy nodded. "I'm listening to it on loop, trying to crack the code." She sighed in frustration and shook her head. "It's stunningly sophisticated, and I can only catch a few fragments, but..." Her eyes opened and she looked around at the others. "I can discern enough detail to deduce that this world is _not_ devoid of development."

"Development?" Salvador frowned. "Wanna explain that one?"

She gave half a shake of her head. "If I'm not _completely_ crazy..."

"Why would _you_ be the exception, kiddo?"

"...then the best bet is a permanent, planetside installation." Cassidy glanced around the room. "A base."

"And the heavily armed, half-automated drone warship just called them for help," Gaige said darkly. "This-"

"Is AWESOME!" Salvador laughed and punched his palm. "What do you think? They've got drones, do you think they'll have robots? Maybe even soldiers? Oh, wait!" He grinned. "_Cyborgs!_"

"I'll take the whole buffet," Krieg snarled, tossing his axe from hand to hand. "I'm _ready_ for a spine-tingler!"

"Start with a space fight." Zero's sniper rifle flashed into his hands. "Next comes a ground engagement." He checked the ammo count and slung the weapon on his back. _"Then_ we find the Vault."

Gaige smirked and clapped Cassidy on the shoulder. "Better keep decoding that message, Cass. We've got plans to make."

* * *

><p><span>[Well, this seems like as good a place as any. I'm going on a brief hiatus because of travel stuff, but I'll be back. My next chapter will go up November 28, and that will resume my weekly updates.]<span>

[I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to everyone that have read my stories over the past... wow, it's been five months since I started posting these. You've all been great, and I'll do my best to make sure my impending updates stay entertaining.]  
><span>

[Thank you for reading, and I'll be back soon!]


	5. Dreams vs Reality

Axton leaned back in a small chair, looking like someone had swung a sandbag into his face. "So...you took out the cruiser with your powers."

Maya managed to hold back most of a very smug smile. "Yup."

"And kept it from destroying your shuttle."

"Did that first, actually."

_"And_ caught Sarah's ship in mid free-fall."

Maya's mouth twisted slightly. "I dropped it a minute later."

Axton scratched his head and looked at the prone figure on the medical table. "But your healing powers don't seem to have increased."

Maya followed his gaze and sighed in frustration. "It doesn't look like it. I'm sorry." She glared at her tattooed arm. "If they _had,_ I could just..." she snapped her fingers, "...and your wife would be totally healed. As it is..." Maya sighed again, closer to a growl this time. "The medical tech will have her back on her feet after this first session, but she'll need several more to regain her full strength."

"Don't beat yourself up over it," Axton consoled her. "Sarah's safe and healing, and I couldn't have gotten her there if you hadn't slowed her crash. _And_ helped out in the firefight."

"At least it was something I could do." Maya grumbled. Then she looked at his expression and felt some of her own frustration ebb. "I have to say, Ax, you're a little surprising yourself today."

"Oh?"

"You're impressively calm. After the stunts you pulled to save her in the first place, I figured you'd be climbing the walls waiting for her to heal."

His eyes darkened a little. "This isn't the first time one of us has held beside vigil for the other."

"Oh." Silence hung in the air for a minute, then Maya coughed awkwardly. "Sorry."

"Goes with the turf." Axton rubbed his eyes. "Both as a husband and a career soldier. I think I've done this like three times-" He glanced over as a monitor started beeping rapidly. "-and things like _that_ are never good."

Sarah's breathing, which had been soft and easy, suddenly began to come in short, unpleasant gasps. The monitor began to sound a shrill alarm.

"What's happening?" Axton demanded. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know!" Maya ran her eyes over the diagnostic equipment, searching for the answer. "Her bones are knitting, her soft tissues are regenerating, and the brain injuries are-" She stopped and stared at the screen in disbelief. "What the hell?"

"What is it?"

"Her heart rate is spiking, and her brainwaves are all over the place." Maya swiped the screens, paging through the lists. "The computer says it looks like the start of an epileptic seizure."

"Oh, son of-" Axton leapt to his feet and grabbed Sarah's shoulders. "What sedatives are we using?"

"Um..." Maya checked the screens. "Just the default medications for heavy regeneration. Standard neural tranquilizers."

"That's the problem." Axton's voice was grim, his arms tense. "Sarah's allergic to those."

"_Allergic?_ How-"

"Never mind that!" he cut her off. "We need a counteragent, fast. If we don't neutralize that stuff _now_, her brain is going to misfire until it fries itself!"

"Axton, I'm not a doctor!" Maya protested. "I have no idea how to neutralize a tranquilizer!"

"You're the team medic! You're the one who spent half the flight out here learning about this tech!" Axton's voice was halfway between furious and terrified, his calm shattered. "You've got to know _something!_"

"I heal _bullet wounds_ with my powers! I wouldn't even know how to start _looking_ for-" Maya broke off, staring at the blue markings on her arm. "But that's not the only thing I can do, is it?"

"What?"

"I'm going to try something." Maya put her left hand on Sarah's forehead and closed her eyes. The tattoos running across her body began to glow faintly.

"But your healing powers-"

"Something _else._" Her own voice sounded far away. "I'm going to try and stabilize her brain's electrical activity myself. Maybe I can keep her brain from shorting itself out." She exhaled slowly, feeling strangely disconnected from herself. Maya focused on the pulsing energy in her left arm, pushing it gently beneath her skin to the woman twitching on the medical table. She stretched out with her mind, reaching for the pulse of thought and consciousness. It was chaotic and panic-stricken; merely brushing it with her thoughts felt like rubbing sandpaper over her soul. Maya tried to project her calm into the flailing mind-

_A burst of images and emotions flooded through her. A destroyed city. Dahl soldiers falling everywhere. A strange, unfamiliar emotion at the realization she was the only one left. A desperate trek through miles of enemy territory, that same alien feeling held at bay only by years of Dahl discipline and training._

_ Seeking shelter in the shadow of a destroyed building as night fell, still deep in enemy turf. Relief and joy at the discovery of three young soldiers. Dismay at the revelation that they were barely out of training on Theseus, with no combat experience at all. A cold recognition that they'd only slow down her desperate march towards friendly forces. A vicious hatred at the protocols saying she should leave children to die._

_ A stubborn refusal to do so._

_ A whirlwind of battles, blood and fire and death, desperately fought to keep them safe. Exhilaration at finally reaching the command post with all three safely under her wing. Protective rage at being told they were being reassigned, slightly guilty satisfaction at their refusal to be transferred._

_ An enormous battle, the largest so far, raged around her. Commandos fell by the hundreds as they pressed towards the enemy lines. A mortar shrieked overhead, impacted behind her, throwing dirt and smoke everywhere. A searing, burning sensation ripped a scream of pain from her, collapsing her to the ground._

_ The world began to darken as her side grew damp. There was a shift, and she realized she was being lifted by someone. They were moving away from the battlefield, but it wasn't fast enough, there were more explosions all around, and gunfire growing ever closer. She tried to speak, to tell them to leave her, but her voice wouldn't work. Desperation mounted as she tried to force the order out of her throat, to leave her behind and save themselves-_

"Maya! Stop, it's getting worse!" In the distance, a hand touched a shoulder that used to have been hers-

_Eyes meeting during an intelligence report. A few words exchanged before the operation drop. A shared drink at the 'we survived the mission' party. An intense rush of physical pleasure at the 'private party' in a storage closet. A growing sense of affection and deeper pleasure the next day, followed by a slower and more fulfilling night spent together. Leave time quietly arranged together on out of the way planets, away from the pressures of military life. The constant joy of being together, the occasional bouts of annoyance and disagreements that made the time together that much more precious. _

_ A thousand, thousand nights together. Myriad rooms, countless beds, but only one purpose. Clothes discarded in the swift, haphazard, slightly frantic manner of people with a burning need. The world outside fading away, reduced to the feel of warm skin and soft sheets-_

Maya pulled away from the intensely personal experiences, embarrassed to intrude. She could still feel the warm glow of the combined memories as they played on, but the actual events were no longer flashing through her mind.

As she withdrew, she realized the mental chaos had receded, that she could reach into the part of Sarah's mind that was still twitching like a wounded animal. Maya stretched out to that part with her thoughts and _willed_ the electrical spasms into stillness. Whenever turmoil threatened to lash out again, Maya reached back to the tangle of pleasurable memories flowing around her and used their strength as fuel in her efforts to pacify the raging beast of autonomic reactions.

Gradually, the flashes of places and emotions faded. Maya slowly became aware of the gentle beeping of the medical equipment, the subtle vibration of the ship's engines, the pressure of Axton's fingers on her shoulder. Gingerly, she eased her eyes open.

Sarah's form lay peacefully on the medical bed. Her breathing was easy, her brain waves stable.

Maya let out a sigh of relief and took her hand off Sarah's forehead. "It's okay, Ax. You pulled her through."

"I... think I knew that," Axton said in a blurry voice. He took his hand off Maya's shoulder and pressed it to his eyes. "What _was_ that? It felt like..."

"It felt like a lot of things." Maya sat down next to Sarah's bed and smiled kindly at him. "Even from my bystander's perspective."

Axton went slightly red. "Uhh... how much did you see?"  
>"Nothing that I'll share," Maya assured him gently. "Those experiences belong to you two, not me. I was just the... intermediary."<p>

Axton's shoulders relaxed slightly, and he ran his eyes over his wife. "She's stabilized? Out of danger?"

"Because of you," Maya confirmed. "I couldn't break through her mental turmoil enough to do what I needed. You, though..." she smiled again. "By reliving your good memories, you calmed her enough for me to mitigate the negative effects of the drugs. You saved her life again."

"Always." Axton took Sarah's hand. "Every time I can." He brushed a strand of bloodied hair out of her face. "But I think it'd be better for both of us if I didn't have to do it very often."

Sarah's other hand caught his. "I'll do my best." Her eyes flicked open, the deep green Maya had seen in Axton's memories staring up at his face. "No promises, though."

"_Sarah!_" Axton dropped her hand and snatched her into a fierce embrace. "Oh, thank god! You scared-"

"Easy, Ax!" Maya yelped, jumping out of her seat and wincing in sympathy. "She's barely healed! You're squeezing too tight!"

"My ribs would agree with that," Sarah gasped through a pained smile. "Loosen up, soldier."

Axton released his grip instantly. "I'm sorry!" He glanced nervously at the medical monitors. "I didn't break anything else, did I?"

"No, but you put a lot of pressure on newly healed bone and muscle," Maya chided. She joined Axton in helping Sarah into a sitting position. "Everything is going to hurt until she finishes her regeneration therapy, so be _careful_."

"I'll shoot up on painkillers," Sarah grunted stoically. She pushed herself the rest of the way upright, sitting with her legs dangling off the bed and wincing as her body complained. "It wouldn't do my team any good to see their leader laid up and whining like an old lady."

Axton and Maya exchanged uneasy glances. Sarah, her eyes closed with the effort of moving, didn't notice. "Um... commander- major-"

"Just Sarah," she said firmly. "You're not one of my soldiers, and you've already seen half our intimate moments." She looked up at Maya eagerly. "Now, where did you put my team? Another part of the sickbay? A different ward?"

Maya caught Axton's stricken expression over Sarah's shoulder. She gritted her teeth. "Sarah... I'm so sorry..."

Sarah's face stayed blank and uncomprehending for a few terrible seconds. Then her eyes widened. "_No._" She turned to Axton, desperation etched into her face. "No, that can't be!"

"I found them," Axton said gently. "They'd all sustained mortal wounds before I even got aboard."

"Mortal..." Sarah's faint color went even paler. "But I had just ordered them to abandon ship..."

"I... I found them scattered around the ship," Axton said reluctantly. "_You_ were the only one in the escape pod."

"_What?!_" She glared at him, her blood-stained expression furious. "I'd never set _foot_ in an escape pod while my crew was on board! You _know_ that, Ax!"

"I _do_ know, but that's where I found you," Axton insisted. "Everyone else... it looked like they died from injuries taken in damage control efforts."

"But they-" Sarah stopped. Her left hand reached up to touch the bloody, matted portion of her hair. "I took a head wound..."

"A serious one," Maya confirmed. "It cracked your skull and smashed half your face."

"That must be when I lost consciousness." Sarah grasped the edge of bed, fingers white with tension. "Those idiots. Those noble, stupid, _young_ idiots. _They_ put me in the pod. They were going to launch me, make sure I'd get out, no matter what."

"While they tried to crash land the ship," Axton guessed. "They must have figured we'd chase after an escape pod, rather than a crashing vessel."

"But they never got the chance to do it," Sarah said grimly. "They got themselves killed trying to save the ship." She thumped her fist on the bed. "_Damn_ it. Why couldn't they have just used the pod and _left_ me?"

"Because you rescued them." The words left Maya before she even knew she was going to say them. "Because you'd gotten them this far, and they wanted you to keep going. Because you meant as much to them as they did to you. Because they thought you were worth risking their lives."

Axton and Sarah both stared at her, silenced by the certainty in her voice.

Maya tapped the side of her own head with a sad smile. "I saw it, remember? I know what you all went through, I know how much you cared about them. And from what I saw, it was mutual."

Sarah thumped her fist on the medical table again. "Doesn't mean they weren't damned fools." She glared at Axton, fire blazing through grief. "Tell me you made that warship pay. Tell me they're ash on the ground, a burning crater. Tell me something that makes it _worth it!_"

A lesser man would have drawn back. Axton sat next to Sarah and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "That warship went down, Sarah. I saw it falling myself." He nodded at Maya. "And you've got her to thank for it."

"Her?" Sarah ran her eyes up and down Maya once, really _looking_ at her for the first time. "Wait, I remember your intel file. Maya the Siren, right?"

Maya nodded, impressed and slightly disturbed. "I have an intelligence file?"

"Nothing official," Sarah assured her. "So I owe you, specifically, for destroying that ship?"

"Crashing it, definitely," Maya corrected. "But I'm not certain the ship was actually _destroyed_."

Sarah's expression shifted to a strange mix of disappointed and hopeful. "Oh, really."

"From the brief look we got at its trajectory, it could have survived crashdown," Maya explained. "Unfortunately, we haven't had time to get an update since getting you aboard."

[I can help with that!] A blue light shimmered down from the ceiling, gradually resolving into a full sized human form-

"_Gaige?!_" Axton demanded, staring at the hologram. "What the hell is that?!"

[Intraship holographic communication system!] She grinned around the room. [Can you _believe_ we never played with this before?]

"How long have-"

Gaige crossed her arms and beamed at him. [Oh, come on, like you're _not_ used to random people jumping into your conversations.] Her voice was almost unbearably smug. [Besides, I think you'll be glad I interrupted. I can give Ms. Just-Call-Me-Sarah a rough idea of the enemy's status.]

"That doesn't mean you should've been eavesdropping on us, kid!" Axton snapped.

"If she's got an intel report for me, I don't care if she recorded us on Hedonista IV and broadcast it to the six galaxies," Sarah growled, punching Axton's shoulder. "You're the mad scientist high-schooler, right? Gaige, I believe?"

[You've heard of me?] Gaige's expression was a mixture of surprised and flattered. [Really?]

"I do my best to keep tabs on my hus- my _ex-_husband's friends. Now, the cruiser?"

[Down hard and trying to get their engines running,] Gaige reported. [They won't be going anywhere for hours, definitely. Probably days if they can't get their repair drones working.]

"You mean they're vulnerable and going to _stay_ that way for a while?" A savage smile worked its way onto Sarah's lips. "Good. Then maybe there's still a chance to turn this mission around."

"Sweetie?"

"I need access to your communications system," she said quickly. "If we can call in reinforcements, we might be able to secure the warship and salvage this whole operation." She looked at Axton. "What's our stellar position? How far to the nearest Dahl outpost?"

"Uh... I'm not really sure," Axton admitted. He glanced at Maya. "You're the one that wanted to come here. Do _you_ have any idea?"

Maya shook her head. "Nowhere close by, I know that much. The nearest inhabited system is two weeks away at top speed. The nearest military outpost..."

[_Four_ weeks away,] Gaige supplied helpfully. [Somewhere the database calls Hestia Station.]

"_Hestia Station?_" Sarah's eyes widened in shock. "That's our forward-most position in this galaxy! It's barely more than a listening post! We can't even _get_ reinforcements from there!" She grabbed Axton's arms. "Where _are_ we?"

Axton took a deep breath before answering. "The galactic edge," he said gently, laying his hands over hers. "Right on the terminus of this galaxy and the next."

"No, no no no _no._"Sarah pressed her hands to her forehead, shock turning rapidly into horror. "No, we _can't_ be this far out. We _can't _be!"

The Hunters traded confused looks. "I don't understand," Maya said. "You were already fighting when we found you. How could you not know-"

"Because _this _wasn't where I engaged the target!" Sarah snapped. She glared furiously at Maya. "I was part of an attack fleet that's probably still halfway across the galaxy!"

"Halfway..." Confusion rippled over Axton's face. "Then how did you get out _here_?"

Sarah's hands tightened on the bed. "That damn warship, that's how. I detected their engines powering up and tried to get in close before they could run. We got dragged into their slipstream when they jumped."

"Slipstream? Jumped?" His expression grew even more baffled. "What are you_ talking_ about?"

"That ship uses some kind of point-to-point FTL drive," Sarah said grimly. "Intelligence has no idea how it works _or_ how to counter it." Her eyes grew harder. "It's given them the advantage in every major engagement so far."

"_Them_?" Axton glanced sharply at Maya. "That warship is part of a fleet?"

"A powerful one." A muscle in her jaw twitched. "And if this one _chose_ to come here..."

"There could be more on the way," Maya realized. "Gaige, have Cassidy start scanning _everywhere_. If another one shows up and catches us off guard-"

[No need to worry about that.]

Maya broke off. Gaige's tone was far too confident, given the situation. "What makes you say that?"

[Weeeell,] Gaige drawled, [I _was_ gonna tell you all later, but...]

"Spit it _out, _kid," Axton growled.

She shrugged. [We intercepted a transmission from that ship a little while ago. We haven't decoded all of it yet, but what we got was pretty cool.]

Sarah's face went red, and she pushed herself halfway off the bed. "_Cool?!_ You-"

Axton quickly laid a hand on her shoulder, silencing her. Her teeth grinding and with obvious reluctance, Sarah eased back into a sitting position. "What _did_ we get?" he asked evenly.

[Turns out that was long range vessel,] Gaige said. Her own expression hadn't twitched at Sarah's reaction. [It was built specifically to be able to make extreme range jumps, like the one that brought you both here.] She grinned. [And there's only _one_ of them. We might be two weeks from your closest base, but _their_ support isn't getting here anytime soon, either.]

Maya frowned ever so slightly at Gaige's reply, but said nothing.

Sarah took a deep breath, apparently trying to bring herself back under control. "Let me see if I've got this right. The warship is down, isn't going anywhere, won't be receiving help any time soon?"

[In a nutshell, yeah.]

Sarah's eyes gleamed. "_Your_ ship, in the meantime, is fully functional, mobile, and has a contingent of extremely skilled warriors aboard?"

[I don't know if seven people counts as a contingent, but again, yeah.]

A low, shaky laugh escaped her lips. "Then maybe there _is_ still a chance." She looked around the room. "Maya, Gaige, I'd like to formally hire you in your capacity as mercenaries," Sarah said firmly. "You, as well as everyone else aboard this ship."

Maya exchanged looks with Axton and Gaige's hologram. "Really? What for?"

"My mission was to conduct a data mining run on that warship," Sarah said. "With your help, I may still be able to complete that objective." A shadow crossed her face. "Additionally, I'll need to request transport to the nearest Dahl facility, given that my own ship is most likely destroyed."

[Well, actually-]

"What are you talking about, Sarah?" Axton demanded. "You want us to back you up while you charge into an enemy stronghold?"

"Essentially, yes." She quirked an eyebrow. "Isn't that what you do these days? Make reckless attacks against superior numbers of enemies, with nothing but your guns and your guts?"

"Pretty much," he admitted. He hopped off the bed and cracked his knuckles. "So, what's the plan, honey? Fly overhead and do a low orbital drop? We can be on 'em in fifteen minutes that way-"

"No." Sarah shook her head. Her voice was laced with regret, but absolutely certain. "We're going to need a few hours, at least."

Axton's face dropped ever so slightly. "Hours? What for? We're ready to go _now."_

"The mission is too critical to risk," Sarah said firmly. "We need to make a proper plan before going in." She raised her hand and extended her fingers. The tips trembled slightly. "Not to mention I'm nowhere near full strength yet_._" She lowered her hand and looked at Maya. "You said I'd need another regeneration session?"

Maya nodded. "A short one will clear out the muscle pain. Some food and actual sleep would also speed your recovery."

"Then that's what I'll take," Sarah said. "I won't be a liability, and I won't be left behind. Not for _this._"

Maya raised an eyebrow. "So despite your obvious drive to complete this job, you're making a pragmatic decision that delays an impetuous, off-the-cuff attack in favor of a planned, strategic approach." She folded her arms and smiled slightly. "I could get used to working for a professional."

"In the interest of full disclosure, I should caution that I can't guarantee your pay up front," Sarah warned, glancing at the three Vault Hunters. "We'll have to wait until I get back in touch with Dahl Central Command before payment can be finalized."

[We've worked for less reliable with lower pay on the table,] Gaige said dryly. [Not to mention there's some dedicated self interest here.]

"_Which_ we can discuss later," Axton interrupted, "after the 'food and rest' portion of the day is over." He offered Sarah his arm. "Which would you prefer first, madam?"

"Actually..." Sarah ran a hand through her matted hair, then over her face and clothing. Disgust warped her stern features as she felt the tacky substance coating her skin and clothing. "Shower."

"Fair request," Maya agreed. "Axton, I think there's an empty set of quarters at the end of the hall to the left. You help Sarah get cleaned up, Gaige and I can start getting intel on the cruiser, and we'll all meet up on the mess decks to plan..." she glanced subtly at the medical status screens, "...in about two hours?"

_"One_ hour," Sarah insisted. "I just need to get the blood off, not a day at the spa." She pushed herself off the table-

Her knees buckled slightly at the impact of her full weight. Axton was at her side instantly, his expression knowing, his eyes pained. He slipped his arm under Sarah's, taking most of her weight on himself. He glanced back at Maya. "You heard the lady. One hour." Moving carefully, they made their way out of the medical bay.

The hologram of Gaige waited until the door had slid shut behind them, then looked at Maya with a doubtful expression. [Do _you_ think she'll only need an hour?]

"Actually, I think she could wash up in fifteen minutes," Maya said calmly. "But she's better off taking the time."

Gaige's mouth dropped slightly, then she grinned and shook her head. [I always forget you've got a killer poker face.]

"Speak for yourself." Maya crossed her arms and stared evenly at Gaige. "You didn't tell her everything just now, did you?"

[How-] Gaige broke off and shrugged. [Can't get anything past you today. Anyway, you're right. We got more from the message than I let on.]

"In what way?"

[To start with, if Ms. Axton wants to go on a murderous rampage, she'll have plenty of targets.]

* * *

><p><span>[And we're back!]<span>

[The upcoming couple chapters won't exactly be action packed, but I promise it'll all pay off. Next time, two Hunters regain their balance in very different ways.]

[Thanks for reading!]


	6. Range rage

Axton had helped Sarah along for about a hundred feet before he accepted this wasn't going to work. Sarah was breathing heavily as her barely healed body struggled to keep her upright, despite his assistance. Even without looking directly at her, he noticed a sheen of perspiration developing quickly on her face. It was probably going to take them fifteen minutes just to get to the empty cabin at this rate.

It pained him to acknowledge the woman who currently held the Theseus Academy record for the planetary triathlon barely had the strength to walk a few hundred yards. He knew what it must be doing to her pride. So, he did the only thing he could think of.

"Do you realize," he said as lightly as he could, "that I never got to take part in one of matrimony's oldest traditions?"

"Not now, Axton," Sarah grunted. "Besides, you had your bachelor party. They _still _talk about it in the bar district. And the red light district. And the _infra-_red light district, for that matter."

"That _was_ a fun night," he agreed. "But I was actually talking about _this._"

"Wha- hey!"

Sarah was actually half an inch taller than Axton, with the build and weight of a career soldier. Fortunately, the new muscle tone Axton had developed weight lifting over six weeks of interstellar travel was more than capable of enabling him to scoop her into his arms and walk along easily.

_At least there's no risk the ship will blow up this time._

"I mean, the captain married us on the bridge," Axton said conversationally. "You wouldn't let me carry you down to your ship, and you refused to let me carry you over the door to your own cabin. _Wildly_ unfair of you to cheat me out of my husbandly duties that way."

"My ship was in the hangar fourteen decks away. I was _not_ about to be hauled down all those ladderwells in your arms. As for my cabin, I couldn't let the junior officers see me like this!"

Axton risked a glance down at Sarah's face. She unmistakably glowering up at him, but her eyes held far less anger and embarrassment than he'd expected.

_ Good to see she won't, either._

"But it's an age-old tradition meant to ward off bad luck!"

"It's an outdated ploy to hide a woman's libido," Sarah countered, tossing an arm over his neck. "And I don't believe in luck."

"Maybe _you_ don't, but we did at least three 'bad luck no-nos' that day." It wasn't easy to sound happy with a clenched throat, but he didn't dare stop talking. "I saw you before the ceremony, I didn't carry you over the threshold, and, worst of all, I agreed to sleep far away from the engine room."

"Oh, good lord." Sarah buried her face in her free hand. "Tell me you're not still carrying around _that_ personal superstition."

"I don't see how you can call it superstition," Axton teased. "We hadn't even gotten out of our dress uniforms before the pirates attacked."

"And we beat them back easily," Sarah retorted. "_They_ were the ones with the bad luck, not us."

"Hard to argue with that. Here we go, your home aboard our little yacht." Axton willed his smile to stay in place as he looked at Sarah's blood-streaked face. "Would you do the honors, honey? My arms are a little full."

"By your choosing, you big lummox." Sarah hit the door release with her free hand. "Wow. Do you usually keep the spare rooms fully furnished and cleaned? Especially when they're this big?"

"We have maintenance drones that do all the housekeeping. If this ship had been ours back in the day, you'd never have had to nag, I mean ask, me to clean up." He stepped into the room and spun around. "Ta-da! You're officially over the threshold."

"And I appreciate the lift." Sarah wriggled in his grip, swinging her legs onto the floor. "Now do us both a favor and drop the phony good humor, okay?"

Axton flushed slightly in a mixture of chagrin and tiny amount of extremely unwanted, unwelcome anger. "Oh, come on, honey," he said in an even more jocular voice, "you can't limit me like that. _All_ my humor is phony."

Sarah paused in unzipping her jacket to give him a half amused, half exasperated look. "You already rescued me from a drone cruiser and my own crashing ship today, Ax. You don't need to rescue my pride, too."

He sighed and motioned to Sarah's arm. "Then let me get you out of that uniform."

Her eyebrow went up, a slightly sardonic smile on her face.

"The ship's laundry can get the blood out," he added loudly. "Not to mention it'll speed things up. You wince every time you bend a joint."

"That one's certainly true," Sarah admitted as Axton took the arm of her jacket. She groaned as she pulled her arm free. "I feel like an accordion that just did a twelve hour polka marathon."

"Better than feeling like a bass drum in the gorilla marching band," Axton quipped. "Other arm."

"Here." Sarah pulled free of her coat and started unbuttoning her inner shirt. "I'll need some spare clothes in the meantime."

"No problem," Axton assured her. He fought to keep his expression neutral as he folded the stained and sodden jacket over his own arm. Sarah's half fastened, equally stained shirt was even more trying on his facial control. "The ship came with a fair selection of civilian clothing."

"And yet you're still wearing the colors. Catch."

Axton snatched the formerly white shirt out of the air. He took advantage of the fact his hands were full to turn towards the room's laundry chute, hiding his face from Sarah- it was getting harder to keep his true feelings in check the more Sarah revealed of her bloodied, aching body. "Figured Vault Hunting in the company logo might earn me some leeway," he lied. "An ex-Dahl commando that takes down the leader of a major corporate rival might not be an _ex_-commando forever, you know?"

"For other soldiers, maybe. For you?" Axton turned back just in time for Sarah's trousers to smack him in the face. "High Command is _still_ dealing with the repercussions of the little stunt that got you kicked out in the first place, and that was _months_ ago. Unless you personally save the lives of everyone at Central HQ, you're out for good, bucko."

Axton pulled the pants away from his eyes. "Never hurts to..." He stopped as an iron fist seized his gut. "What the _hell?_"

Sarah paused in pulling off her discolored socks (_My god, how much blood did she _lose_?_) and glanced down at her left side. "Oh, that." She traced her fingers over the mass of rough, wrinkled scar tissue that covered her lower back before running down her waist, to the middle of her left leg. "Just a souvenir."

"Souven-" Axton stared at her in disbelief. "How did that _happen?_"

"Splash damage from a mortar impact on my last mission," Sarah sighed. "Happened shortly after I picked up those three rookies you found on my ship."

"_Mortar impact?_" Axton frowned, his mind whirling. "You were due to rotate back to Themis with the battalion, not somewhere you'd get hit by a mortar!"

"Orders changed," Sarah said with a shrug. "They dispatched me to a suppression op on Acheron right after you left."

"Acheron." Axton's voice sounded dull to his own ears. "They... sent _you_... to _Acheron_."

"The situation needed an experienced field commander." Sarah reached for her bra clasp, wincing once more as she bent her arms backward. "I was off mission and available, so-"

Axton laid his hands over hers, stopping the motion. "_Why_ did they send you to Acheron, Sarah?"

Sarah glanced at him over her shoulder with a smile he knew all too well. It was her version of the smile he'd been struggling to maintain, and just lost control of. "Axton, how about we discuss this when I'm _not_ effectively naked except for my own blood, okay?"

He nodded mechanically, barely hearing her voice. A violent tumult of anger, of grief, and a thousand other emotions drowned out nearly everything in his head. He could picture Sarah getting the orders, the look in her eyes at the unofficial death sentence. He couldn't imagine the resolve to actually _follow_ those orders, and to have had to face it because of _him-_

A small, stabbing pain in his palm broke through the confusion. Axton glanced down and realized Sarah was digging her nails into his skin. "Ouch- sort of. Why are you doing that?"

"To encourage you," Sarah said testily. "Either finish helping me undress or let me finish myself. I'm getting cold, and we're running out the clock."

Axton blinked and came fully back to himself. "Right. Sorry." He undid the clasp with practiced ease, then stepped away. "Shower's right behind that door. We've got hot water for three hundred, so no worries there." It took herculean effort, but he managed to ratchet a grin back onto his face. "Just don't slip in the tub, or you'll wind up needing more regen therapy."

"I'll be sure to watch my step," she promised dryly. Still holding the last of her clothing in place, Sarah walked into the bathroom and slid the door closed.

Axton waited until the sound of water blasting full force leaked through the door. He counted another thirty seconds for good measure, then ducked out of the room and down the passageway at a brisk trot.

Sarah wouldn't take longer than she had to with her shower, and he wanted to be back before she finished. Right now, though, he had the overwhelming, uncontrollable urge to _shoot something._

Axton half expected a rattle of gunfire to greet him as the range door swung open, but all was silent. _Too busy to be Rembrandt today, Zero?_

He stepped into the nearest lane and tapped out a sequence on the booth's keypad. "Computer?"

**{Online.}**

"Set me up a target." A long, multi-barreled assault rifle flared into his hands. "Solid mass, not holographic. And not paper, either. Something that _shatters._"

**{Request confirmed. Additional criteria?}**

"No. Yes." He sighted the space the target would appear. "Use every target in the database with the word 'Dahl' attached to its file descriptor."

**{Confirmed.}**

A cluster of light blazed at the end of the target range. Through his rifle scope, Axton watched a camouflage-painted slice of wood solidify, the word DAHL stenciled across it in olive green.

_Good start._ He squeezed the trigger.

The rifle kicked in his hands as the barrels spun up to full speed. Axton didn't bother trying to aim; his current weapon was meant for high-speed, mass target annihilation, not pinpoint accuracy.

_It's what they deserve._

The rifle thumped against his palms one last time, then ceased. The barrels spun on for a few more seconds before Axton realized he had emptied the sizable magazine. A few shreds of the target dangled limply from its mounting hook.

"Computer!" Axton slapped the keypad, materializing a shotgun. "New target!"

**{Confirmed.}**

Axton sighted the poster advertising Dahl's mercenary values. The hard light construct fragmented like glass this time, exploding into nothing as his shotgun chewed through it.

"Again!"

A volley from his SMG burned away an image of Dahl's high-tech weaponry.

"Again!"

A electric assault rifle blast incinerated Dahl's promise of money and honor.

"Again! _Faster, _dammit!"

A slag pistol destroyed the name again. A corrosive shotgun melted another empty slogan, while its hurled reload erased a vanity-infused picture of a rifle. Axton brought an SMG up as the next target flashed into the lane-

And stopped. He stared at the target, confusion muting his rage. "Computer, what's that doing there?"

**{Target matches specified parameters.}**

"But what's it _doing_ here?" he demanded. "Doesn't Zero keep all his bullet art?"

**{Confirmed. Artwork was scanned and stored in database for redundancy purposes. Filename: Axton, the Dahl Commando.}**

Axton stared at the hardlight version of Zero's artwork. It was a remarkably accurate piece. The assassin had nailed Axton's features. The hair, the cheekbones, the eyes and mouth...

The arrogant, staring eyes. The cocky grin. The man so certain he get away with anything, that nothing could ever stop him. Something would have to kill this man in order to stop him.

_But what about those you left behind? The ones who couldn't, or _wouldn't_ run? _His own imagined voice drilled into his mind. _Her wounds, her scars, they're _your_ fault. They sent her to Acheron because they _knew_ she let you get away, but they couldn't prove it. _The grin seemed to grow cruelly mocking. _Didn't think about what your actions would cost _her_, did you?_

"Computer." Axton's voice was dead as he keyed for a different weapon. "Put this target on repeat."

**{Confirmed.}**

Axton's first rocket obliterated the grinning face. The second was right behind the first, destroying the target before it had fully reformed. The third he actually fired too fast, missing the target entirely, but the fourth shattered the cocky expression instantly.

After that, Axton lost count of his fire. He just kept pulling the trigger, destroying his own image over and over. He didn't stop firing until the target stopped materializing.

He blinked sweat out of his eyes. He swiped at his forehead with the back of his hand and realized he was panting. "Computer?"

{**Online.}**

"Where's the next target?" He glared at the empty hook. "I'm not done here."

** {For safety reasons, shooting sessions are limited to thirty minute intervals. Do you wish to override?}**

"Yes, of course I-" He stopped. "_Thirty_ _minutes?!_"

** {Confirmed.}**

"Son of a _bitch!_" He dropped his gun and sprinted for the door. _Half a god damned hour_, Axton fumed. _Brilliant move, genius. She's gonna be _pissed_, losing all that time._

He had to admit, though, the shooting range had eased some of his fury at Dahl. A little of his anger at the pompous, condescending, smug assholes that had sent his wife to that meat grinder of a planet _was_ muted.

His anger at himself was going to take a while longer. He hoped alcohol would speed up the process.

That was for later, though. Right now, the door to Sarah's cabin was coming up. Trying to ignore the twist in his stomach, Axton hit the OPEN button.

A gust of warm, humid air puffed against his face. Axton blinked and tried to squint through the haze obscuring the room. As the door slid shut behind him, he realized he could still hear the shower running. _Well, at least she didn't notice how long I was gone._ "Sarah?" he called. "You okay in there?"

There was a pause just long enough for him to reflect on his 'don't slip' comment, then Sarah's voice drifted out to him. "Yeah, I'm good, Ax. Just trying to loosen my muscles."

A small sigh of relief slipped past his lips. "Do you plan on staying in much longer? We can always push back the meeting-"

"No!" The water cut off instantly. A second later, Sarah emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a towel almost large enough to conceal the massive scar on her left side. She was rubbing her hair dry with a smaller towel. "No, I'm not waiting around any longer than I have to."

"You never could," Axton agreed. He peered closely at her. "You're sure you didn't get overheated in there? Your face is _really_ red."

Sarah stopped drying her hair and scrubbed quickly at her eyes. "I let the waterworks go on longer then I'd planned. Just... couldn't stop for a while. I've got it under control, though." She sniffed once, dropped her hand, and looked at Axton. "You said you had some clothes for me?"

"Yeah." Axton pointed to a dresser built into the wall. "Underwear and stuff in there. You get that, I'll get the rest." He turned towards the room's recessed closet, frowning a little. Something about her face and voice just now... "In the interest of not putting pressure on your sore muscles, I recommend a loose fitting jumpsuit. Sound okay?"

"Whatever."

"We've got one style of coverall in five different colors. What are you in the mood for? Bright yellow? Dark blue?" He pushed a few hangers aside. "Oh, here's a nice lime green." He pulled it out and offered it to her with an extremely fake smile. "The latest in 'straight from the recovery ward' chic, don't you think?"

"Blue." She stared at the clothing with red-rimmed eyes. "I_ hate_ hospitals."

"I know." He handed her the blue jumpsuit and turned to hang the other back up. "I don't remember the last time you set foot in one voluntarily."

"Three years ago," Sarah said instantly. Her voice was hard and bitter. "March eighteenth, oh-nine-thirty hours. You were with me."

_Three years...?_ Axton's eyes widened as the memory surged forward. He _did_ remember that visit. It had been the culmination of months of effort, countless tests, and numberless fears. Everything had been reduced by a bland-faced doctor into one inescapable, unchangeable truth.

It was also the only time he'd ever seen his wife cry.

_Damn right. Whoever else is on board, I don't know them. _The echo of his own words rang in his ears.

But _Sarah_ had known them. And as Axton looked at her bloodshot eyes, he realized their deaths had ripped tears from her the way only one other event ever had.

"Oh, Sarah..." he offered his hands uselessly, then let them drop to his sides. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"Wouldn't have changed anything if you had," Sarah retorted with her back to him. She stepped into the jumpsuit and zipped it up. "You said yourself they were already dead by the time you boarded. You would never have been in time to save them."

Axton stretched out towards her shoulder. "Sarah-"

She flinched away from his touch, arms crossed as she stared away from him. "We're not supposed to care this much," she finally said softly. "They say things like 'band of brothers' or 'the corps is family,' but we're not supposed to feel it like it's _true._" Her left hand swiped at her eyes again. "But those _children_..."

Axton swiftly looped his arms around Sarah's waist. With his boots on, he had just enough height to rest his chin on her shoulder. He felt her stiffen, start to pull away, then stop. He held on gently, and gradually, her muscles loosened, and she leaned into his embrace.

"I'm sorry," he finally said. "I'm sorry you lost them, and that I didn't get there in time to save them. You've got no idea how much I regret that I can't give them back to you."

"Then give me the next best thing." Sarah turned in his arms and he found himself locked in her eyes. Their green fire could burn men alive. "Help me complete my mission. Help me give their deaths _meaning._"

"I will." Axton flung himself onto the pyre of her gaze and pulled her close. "These guys have no _idea_ what's about to come for them."

* * *

><p><span>[That's one...]<span>


	7. Is this the real life? Just fantasy?

_A base._ The words buzzed around Maya's brain incessantly, while a slow pulse beat at her temple. _Why would anyone have a base out _here?_ No one was supposed to be _able_ to know about the Vault, so why would they even come out this far?_

Maya stalked through the ship's corridors, intending to go to the mess decks, but barely noticing her surroundings. The idea of someone else getting to the Vault World before her was... _infuriating_, for some reason.

_It must have something to do with the way the planet looked, _Maya reflected. _It was so _beautiful_ on the initial approach. Now, it's... spoiled, somehow._ Her mind drifted back to the dome, only a few hours ago. The way the sunlight had reflected off the oceans and mountain ranges. How the snow glistened up at them, catching her eye even in the midst of Axton's desperate charge across the _Fiery Pearl's_ hull. The amazing spectacle of a whole world drenched in varying shades of blue, something she'd never imagined possible.

The idea of a permanent artificial structure down below, especially one built by an enemy force, made Maya's stomach turn and hands curl in anger. She gritted her teeth as the image of heavy construction equipment tearing into the virgin soil below gnawed at her mind, shredding the pristine environment for a group of filthy zealots, bent on seizing the Vault for themselves-

A dull throb and slight wetness in her left hand drew her eyes downward. Maya stared at her clenched fists, then slowly raised them to chest height and uncurled her stiff fingers.

Her left palm was slick with a thin mixture of blood and sweat. The tips of her nails were red. From the ache in her right hand, the only thing that had saved _that_ side was her glove.

Maya wiped her hand on her pant leg and started for the elevator again, feeling strangely disconcerted. She hadn't realized she was that angry. _Not just angry. Furious. Enraged. _Livid._ When was the last time I-_

She didn't even have to finish the thought to know the answer. Maya had always possessed a temper, but most of her rage was icy, a cold determination to end whoever had wronged her. The only time she ever _burned_ with anger was when she had dealt with the condescending attitudes belonging to the leader of the Order of the Impending Storm.

_And the last time I dug this hard into my own palms was the day I left Athenas. _

The day she'd murdered Brother Sophis.

The elevator was in sight, but Maya began to slow her pace, dragging out the short distance. For some reason, the idea of being around anyone else, even her friends, was oddly constricting. In fact, the idea of staying on the _ship _was making her skin crawl. Maya thought again of the stunning world below and felt her anger flare once more. If it hadn't been for the warship, they would be down on the surface right now, forging their way towards the Vault under the sun and in the air of the new world-

Something flashed in the corner of her eye, bringing Maya to a full halt. She looked to her left and saw the massive window of the emergency gunsighting room, the curve of the blue world just peeking up from the window's bottom, the black of space just brushing the top.

Maya blinked in confusion. _Wait... why am I here? _The medical bay was clear on the other side of the deck. She would have had to go right past at least two other elevators to even _get_ this far. _Did I just storm the whole way around the ship and not _realize_ it?_

The ship's angle changed slightly, bringing more of the world into view. Maya's breath escaped in a tiny gasp as she looked down on the globe.

It was even more beautiful than she remembered. The planet's surface ranged from deep blue, almost black, to a glimmering white with just a tinge of color. Several mountains glimmered in the sunlight, their peaks rising into points far above the world below.

Without even thinking about it, Maya walked into the gunsight room and over to the massive window. She sank into her cross legged meditation pose, slowing her breath and willing her pulse to a calmer rhythm. She stared outward at the planet for a few more seconds, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

The stars appeared in her mind's eye, a scattering of jewels across the dark canvas of space. Maya concentrated on blanking them out, removing their light from the infinite. With each point of light removed, she let a tense muscle loosen, an ember of anger go out, a care fade away. Finally, her body relaxed and her mind was free, with only one point of light remaining.

A blue one.

She focused on the last point, preparing to erase it and let herself go... then stopped. Instead of erasing the last star, she reached out to it, let it grow larger in her mind. The point became a twinkle, a spark, an orb of light, growing ever larger.

It wasn't a star, but she knew that. It was her meditation, of _course_ she did. But she allowed herself to feign surprise at the blue planet rushing towards her. It grew until it filled her mind, and she hung in the emptiness with it. No ship, no stars, just her and the world.

The glow of the atmosphere began to fade, and the bulk of the continents. The seas vanished, followed by the glowing center of the world. Only the brilliant blue of the crystal mountains remained, glimmering up at her.

As she stared at them, Maya saw a pattern within the rock. She pushed aside the duller quartz, the commonplace stones. The pure core of the range formed a massive circle across the planet, surrounding another shape, both combining into a pattern that would take a lifetime to walk across, were she limited to her physical body.

_The world had receded. The Vault symbol remained._

_ Maya watched the symbol, the ancient marker of power and knowledge and danger. She watched as it glimmered, blue light sparkling within it. For what felt like a million years, the light raced throughout its shape, channeled by the crystal mountains._

_ Then, a flare._

_ It was small. A brief pinprick of yellow light at the top of the symbol, where the apex nearly touched the circle. It only lasted a moment, but somehow, the flash disturbed her. It didn't belong there. Only the light within the symbol belonged._

_ Another flare, larger. It, too, faded quickly, but was replaced by another, then another. With a speed that made her heart ache, the flawless blue light of the symbol was occluded by the intrusive yellow flares from something else. _

_ Maya had the strange feeling the lights were trying to pierce the symbol, breach the crystal skin. It was like the light outside wanted to replace the light within._

No!

_ She focused her mind, trying to douse the invaders, but she couldn't put them out. The Vault symbol weathered the assault alone, stoically defying the incessant jabs._

_ Another flare, brighter than all the others, a twisted, sickening green color. For the first time, the symbol seemed affected, unable to withstand the green light as easily as it had the smaller yellow flashes._

_ The green light pulsed again, and Maya was filled with an irrational loathing for it. She wanted it to go away, to leave her and the symbol alone again, but she couldn't stop the vile color from reappearing, pounding on the symbol over and over. _

_ Cracks were beginning to form in the Vault symbol. The yellow flashes had reappeared, clustered around the weakened area, pummeling it constantly. All the while, the green flashes kept blazing into the symbol, hitting a spot until a new fracture appeared, then attacking another section while more yellow flares replaced the green. The yellow light seemed to be seeping through the crystal skin of the symbol-_

_ The blue light surged, radiating outward with the force of a sun. Maya felt her heart lift, eyes tearing with joy as the blue washed away everything else in a blaze of light. The invaders were banished. The symbol was safe again._

_ But it was also damaged, and the green and yellow lights would return. A single counterattack was not enough to save the symbol. It would need more, it would need _help, _so it called as it lashed out, singing for any that could hear-_

[Maya? You there, _chica?]_

Maya blinked her eyes open, shaking her head and inhaling deeply. "Wooo... Sal? Is that you?"

[Who else on this boat speaks spanish?] He sounded halfway between amused and concerned. [Hey, where are you? Ax's lady wants to start the meeting.]

"She's already showered and changed? Damn, I thought I'd tricked her into taking longer." Maya rubbed her eyes. "All right, I'll join you shortly. Thanks."

[_De nada._] The ECHO clicked off.

Maya stretched her arms over her head and arched her back, feeling her spine crackle satisfyingly. Her meditation session had certainly helped settle her mind, despite the odd, dreamlike quality and combative feel of it. She'd let her mind wander before, but never into anything so surreal. She uncrossed her legs and tried to stand-

Maya gasped aloud as a storm of pins and needles raced over her body from the waist down. She bit her lip as her lower limbs protested their sudden usage, threatening to dump her back onto the floor. Gritting her teeth, she tried to massage some of the blood flow back into them. _That's weird. My legs don't usually fall asleep that fa..._

The thought trailed off. Maya's hands stopped kneading her leg. Almost reluctantly, she reached for her ECHO device and checked the time display.

She stared at the display as the number changed twice more. She even counted the seconds to make certain her ECHO wasn't running fast.

It wasn't. She'd lost nearly an hour of time to her meditation.

Maya put the device away and straightened up and walked over to the window, ignoring the lingering stabs in her legs. She gazed down unblinkingly, searching the world's features for a pattern.

Clouds. Water. Landmasses. Mountain ranges, many of them. But no flashes of light dancing across their crystalline forms, nor any massive Vault symbol. _But it wasn't immediately visible,_ a small part of her mind whispered. _You had to strip away the world, first._

_It was a dream,_ she tried to tell herself. _You nodded off during your meditation. You've done it before._

But that wasn't right, and Maya knew it. With one final look at the planet, she turned and walked quickly out the door. A handful of seconds later, she was in the elevator and heading for the bridge. The ship's sensors were incredibly powerful. Who knows what a focused scan on the mountain ranges might show?

Her friends would have to wait a little longer. She _needed_ to find out.

* * *

><p><span> [...and that's two.]<br>

[Next week, the planning session with a helping of meet & greet. Thanks for reading!] 


	8. Expectations, plans, and videotapes

"You know, this _really_ isn't how I figured we'd be spending our first day out here."

Zero glanced at Salvador. The smaller man was sitting across the circular messroom table, chin resting in his hands. A doleful expression plagued his face. "We battled in space, I aided in a rescue, And soon, we battle," Zero said. He returned his attention to his sniper rifle, wiping its gleaming metal with a cloth. "It's been a _great _day."

"Oh, the dog fight was fun," Salvador agreed, "but it's all we've done so far." He sighed again rubbed his beard. "I thought by now I'd have collected two or three local animal heads for my quarters."

:p "We are not equipped With a taxidermy lab. That would be messy."

"What-a-dermy lab?"

Zero's hand stopped running over his gun. "Your statement contains Disturbing implications. You would hang _fresh _heads?"

"Well, yeah. Otherwise, I'd miss out on the blood patterns on the walls." Salvador's head perked up and he looked around at the mess walls with a thoughtful expression. "You know, I've always thought _this_ room needed more color..."

"Then break out the paint," Gaige said from across the table. She was leaning over Cassidy's shoulder, peering at a screen. "Whatever else we do with this place, we're not mounting heads that leak blood everywhere."

"Now, that's not fair," Salvador protested. "I've heard you say you like getting brain on your shoes. What's your problem with bloody walls?"

"My shoes are one thing, the room where I eat dinner is something else."

Salvador looked at Zero. "Come on, _amigo!_ Talk some sense into her!"

"Challenges _are_ life, But even I'm not _that_ brave," Zero said flatly. "You're on your own, pal."

"Krieg?"

"Deck the halls with bandit entrails!"

Salvador grinned and slapped Krieg on the shoulder. "See? _Krieg_ gets it." He looked at Cassidy. "How about you, _pilota_?"

Cassidy winced. "Sorry, Sal. Entertaining the idea of, um... 'effluvium enhancements' evokes an urge to shriek _eeeeeeeewww_."

Salvador heaved an enormous sigh and shrugged at Krieg. "Well, _amigo, _looks like we're outvoted."

"Don't listen to 'em, Isaac!" Krieg patted his shoulder and waved his axe at the large hologram revolving slowly over the table. "Let's go make them _pieces!_"

"That'll be a hell of a treat," Salvador agreed. His eyes gleamed as he ran them over the ship's image. "When do we get to make a run on that bad boy?"

"Once Ax's ex has all the details and makes a plan," Gaige said with a shrug. "She's the one paying for this mission."

Cassidy stopped typing and frowned. "Should we be wondering about his wife?"

"Why would we wonder about his wife?" Gaige asked the question without thinking. She blinked as Salvador and Krieg both snickered at her words, and even Zero flashed up 'LOL'. She folded her arms and looked sideways at Cassidy, trying to hold back a smirk of her own. "Now you're just doing it on purpose, aren't you?"

Cassidy offered an innocent look and a charming smile. "Me?"

Gaige rolled her eyes and rubbed Cassidy's head affectionately. "Anyway, the question stands. What are you curious about?"

"The controllers of that craft," Cassidy said, nodding toward the ship. "We intervened instantly at Axton's behest, but we know nothing about our adversary other than they sought to snuff out our soldier friend's spouse. Shouldn't we at least learn who we'd be battling?"

"Believe me, I _wish_ I could answer that."

Everyone looked towards the sound of the female voice. The blonde woman from the transport was in the door to the mess decks, Axton at her side.

"I can't tell you their name," Sarah said grimly, walking slowly towards them. "I can't tell you where they came from, or why they're waging this war against Dahl. I can't tell you because _we don't know._"

She sank into a chair, eyes dark as she continued. "I _can_ tell you that they've gone to incredible lengths to hide their identity. That every time we get close to a victory in space, they suicide their craft against our own. That debris analysis shows they rig their key systems with explosives, just to make absolutely certain there's nothing we can either salvage or use to identify them.

"I can tell you they've beaten us in every major engagement. That their tactics have turned an otherwise innocuous technology like a stardrive into a game-breaking advantage. That our ships will lock onto a target, only for it to disappear and reappear a split second later with guns blazing. That the average survival rate of one of our capital ships in battle with theirs is less then fifteen percent.

"I can tell you that our ground campaigns aren't going any better. That even though we outnumber them in human soldiers, they've managed to hold their own by supplementing their troops with robotic infantry. I can tell you these robots are a hundred times faster, stronger, more vicious, and more deadly than anything Hyperion could ever _dream _of, and that they grind up commandos like wheat in a mill." She gave a smile completely without humor. "Of course, if I _do _tell you all that, you'll probably double your rates."

Salvador chuckled. "You hear that, _amigos? _She thinks all that danger is gonna make us ask for _more _money." He grinned widely as laughter rippled around the table. "_Senora, _if these guys are half as badass as you make 'em sound, I'll do this for _free._"

"Yeah, but you work for cheap, Sal," Gaige teased. "Now me, I'm woman of refinement. I want enough of these killer robot parts fill the cargo hold. And my quarters." She glanced at Axton thoughtfully. "Maybe yours, too."

Krieg roared and pumped his axe in the air. "Fresh screams for my nightmares!"

"New and deadly foes?" }:) "You're only threatening me With a good time, ma'am."

"Hey, Sal! Maybe we can mount a robot head on the wall!"

"Surrounded by-"

"_No. _"

Sarah looked at Axton in disbelief as the friendly argument continued. "These are the people you've been hanging out with?"

He smiled. "Ain't they great?"

"It's one thing to read about your little crew on paper, but to meet them in the flesh..." Sarah gave the group another onceover. A tiny half-smile wormed its way onto her face. "You all might just be crazy enough to pull this off."

"_Might be? _" Salvador crossed his arms and tried to look insulted. "You wound me, _Senora! _I'm _el gigante loco especial! _Of course we can do this." He scratched his head. "Now, what exactly _are _we doing?"

"Starting with a quick roll call, actually," Sarah said. "I want to make certain I've got everyone straight." She pointed to Salvador first. "You're Salvador, born and raised in the village of Ovejas. You've got a unique talent for gunplay and a rap sheet as long as my arm, which you somehow managed to earn in a single night."

Salvador grinned reminiscently. "Now _that _was a bar brawl to remember. Last time I ever fight with the Biter clan, though. I got all the blame for the chewed limbs."

"Why did you get blamed? Were you fighting with or against these Biters?"

"_Si. _"

"Of course." Sarah went on to Salvador's right. "Krieg, former Hyperion prisoner and torture victim. No public history prior to your escape from Hyperion labs. Highly effective killer and nigh impossible to stop." She eyed him with a mix of pity and admiration. "I don't know how much it'll mean to you, but the damage you caused during your escape set Hyperion's bio-research back decades."

Krieg gave a chuckle that was two-thirds snarl. "Eventually I'll drag the slice masters to the top floor with my hate escalator!"

"If that means what I think it does, they'll be in trouble." Sarah pointed to Cassidy and hesitated. "You I don't know."

"You can call me Cassidy." She snapped off an informal salute. "I'm the _Pearl's _pilot."

"The pilot?" She gave Cassidy an appraising look. "You were the one who flew this vessel against that warship?"

"I did do my damnedest against your automated aggressor," she said, nodding. "They were a trifle too tricky for me to take down on my own, unfortunately."

Gaige left teeth marks in her lip to keep from laughing at Sarah's expression.

Sarah blinked and glanced sideways at Axton. "Does she always do that, or is she mocking me somehow?"

Axton snickered. "Not mocking you, honey. Promise."

"Hmph." Sarah stared at Cassidy for a few more seconds, then shrugged. "Well, uh... that's why you're part of a team," she rallied. "So you've got someone to back you when you need it." She tore her gaze from Cassidy and glanced around the table again. "Speaking of your backup, where _is _Maya?"

"Not sure, actually," Gaige admitted. "Last I knew, she was headed up here."

"I'll call her," Salvador offered, sliding off his chair. "She can't be _too _far away." He headed out into the hall, the door sliding shut behind him.

"Might as well keep going," Gaige suggested. There was a hint of eagerness in her voice. "I know we talked already, but..."

"Oh, I know a good deal about you," Sarah replied indulgently. "It seems like the Holloway family puts out a new bounty on you every week. Last I checked, it was five percent of their company stock and forty acres on Eden VI. They still can't get anyone to accept the job, though."

"_Really _?" Gaige grinned. "I scare all the bounty hunters that much?"

"Pandora certainly does," Sarah corrected dryly. "Word hasn't leaked out that you aren't there any more. No one's willing to risk taking on a Vault Hunter on what's basically their home turf."

"'Cept for One," Salvador pointed out, coming back in and taking his seat. "He actually got you, too."

"Sure, but he was after _Zero _," Gaige pointed out. "I wasn't his real target, just an interesting opportunity." She smiled faintly and rubbed Cassidy's shoulder. "Fortunately."

"Which brings me to you," Sarah said as she faced Zero. "You've certainly earned your enigmatic reputation. All I could really find on you was a list of kills you _might _have been involved in."

:) "I can kill your foes And fade away instantly. What more could you need?"

"One thing, to start with." Sarah exhaled sharply. "I need everyone's help to storm that warship out there and acquire its computer database. If it's digital, I want it."

"That's it?" Axton shrugged. "Sounds easy enough."

"The objective is simple, but you'd better believe they won't make it easy," Sarah cautioned. "This mission was conceived as a desperation attempt to get usable intel on the enemy tech."

"You wanted some way to counter their stardrive," Gaige hazarded.

"Not wanted. _Needed. _" She clasped her hands together. "We're taking a real beating from these guys."

"How bad of an ass kicking?" Salvador asked. "Like, rough night in the bar, or left to die in the desert by _banditos _?"

"Left to die in the desert, buried up to your neck, hands tied to your feet while ravenous fire ants are closing in on you. And the ants are _actually _on fire. And you're the only source of water."

Salvador winced. "Yike."

"Yes." Sarah traced the rank insignia over her eye. "In the last six months, they've taken four of our outer colony worlds, destroyed enough ships to count as a lost fleet, and captured two starbases. We've also lost contact with another three planets and their nine associated defensive ships."

"Good god." Axton's normally cocky expression was nowhere to be seen. "All this because of a _star drive? _"

Sarah laughed bitterly. "It gets worse. Their most recent attack could change the balance of power for decades. _Centuries _." She raised her head and stared straight at Axton. "They... they took Theseus, Ax."

"They hit _Theseus? _" Axton looked like he wanted to throw up.

"Not hit," Sarah corrected. Her eyes were burning. "_Took_. They've been occupying it for _three_ _weeks_."

Axton slumped in his chair. "Good _god._"

"Whoa, whoa, hang on!" Salvador protested. "What are you talking about? What the hell's Theseus?"

"Dahl's training planet," Zero said flatly. "It trains soldiers to serve them On the field of war."

"It's more than that," Axton said. His voice was leaden with shock. "It's one of Dahl's six major training facilities, a key shipyard and materiel supplier, and the _center_ of Dahl's manufacturing operations in this galaxy. It is supposed to be one of the most, if not _the_ most, secure planets_ anywhere._" He stared at Sarah, a horrible blankness on his face. "How did it happen? Who let an armada of ships slip the defensive line?"

Gaige's eyes widened. "No one," she realized. "Their teleporting drive-"

"-got their ships in past all the primary layers of defense," Sarah confirmed grimly. "And, because Theseus was so far inside the core systems, Command thought it was safe. They had pulled most of its defensive fleet to scour the border systems for our elusive foe. By the time anyone could respond to their distress call, our enemy had taken the planet."

"And they _held _it? They're _still _holding it?!"

"You remember Theseus' defense systems?" Sarah growled. "They took those first. They seized control of everything when the fleet attacked. Ground based cannons and shields, orbiting weapon platforms... all of it."

"_How?!_"

She shook her head wearily. "If anyone knows, they haven't told us grunts."

"So... they're using your own defenses to keep you back," Gaige prompted.

"With all their usual efficiency."

"What about the students?" Axton asked. There was a painful desperation in his voice. "There are countless trainees on that planet!"

"We know there are resistance pockets on Theseus," Sarah said. "Mostly instructors that eluded capture and a handful of senior students. They're trying to take the planet back, but with so few actual fully trained fighters..." she trailed off and sighed.

"_No bueno, _eh?"

"_Muy malo,_ actually." Sarah stared up at the warship hologram pensively, missing Salvador's surprised look.

"Did...did they kill the other students?" Gaige asked uncertainly. "The ones that aren't fighting?"

"Unlikely," Sarah said. "That's a _lot_ of untrained, potentially useful personnel they'd be killing. It's more likely they'll try to brainwash or otherwise persuade as many as they can to join their army."

"How did they do it?" Axton's tone was beginning to get some of its fire back as he absorbed the knowledge. "How did they come from nowhere to _steal _one of our most important school worlds? Where did they get the ships and manpower?"

"That's another question the Intelligence crew would trade any two limbs to figure out," Sarah growled. "They obviously have access to heavy manufacturing, but they've been just as skillful at masking the supply side of this war. We don't know _where _they're getting the ships and infantry units from."

"What _do _we know about them?"

"Extremely little," Sarah admitted. "All that's confirmed is that they started off as the military wing of some planetary theocracy that lost their civilian leader. Based on their actions, we believe the military commander took control and started this war."

Axton sat back slightly, grim logic setting in. "Oh great, everyone's _favorite _type of enemy. Professionally trained zealots."

"Professionally trained zealots with the ability to teleport their ships in real time." Gaige made a face. "No wonder you're losing."

"The loss of Theseus is what prompted my current mission," Sarah went on. "The idea was to send in a cadre of boarding craft while our capital ships tried to keep them contained." She grimaced. "It _almost _worked. We had most of their ships tied up with a firefight, my ship was almost in docking range of the target, then it jumped away."

"And you got dragged along," Axton said.

"Unfortunately." Sarah looked around at the Vault Hunters, then at Axton. "For the most part."

Cassidy coughed quietly. "Pardon me... but if they possessed a point-to-point propulsion system, how could conventional craft even _contemplate_ containment?"

"Observation," she replied. "We've noticed they need a certain degree of clear space to make that kind of a jump. By keeping our capital ships out of their self-destruct range, but within what we're calling their 'jump arc', the goal was to keep them around long enough for the smaller ships to board and get the information Central Command was after." Her finger tapped restlessly on the table. "Evidently someone didn't hold position where they were supposed to and let my target vessel slip the line."

"Huh." Axton glanced at the warship hologram. "The way you talk about these guys, I'm surprised they didn't just blow themselves up when it looked like you might get aboard."

"Unprofitable action," Sarah pointed out. "Why waste a ship when you can just repel the boarding party? They'd still have plenty of time to blow themselves up if it looked like we might actually _get_ something." She shrugged. "At least, that's the way the mission planners figured it."

"Your leaders bet your lives on a profit/loss margin?" Gaige grimaced. "That's _sick._"

"It's desperation," Sarah repeated. "With Theseus under their control, they have access to some of the most advanced heavy manufacturing plants in the six galaxies. Couple that to their unknown support..." She shook her head. "Best case scenario for us, Intelligence estimates they'll have the ships to launch a full scale assault on Central Command in a year and a half. That assumes they _don't_ manage to threaten, beat, or bribe the planetary workers into going faster."

"Right." Axton crossed his arms. "So what's the worst case?"

Sarah's shoulders tensed. "Four months."

"Holy _hell._"

"That's assuming maximum output of Theseus, with equal output from their silent partners, plus co-opting at least half the current trainees into service," she elaborated. "Basically, everything going exactly right for them."

Krieg cracked his knuckles. "Then let's blunt the butcher's knives!"

"Excuse me?"

"We make sure their operations around here _don't_ go according to plan," Axton translated. "Where do we start?"

"Well, there's exhibit A," Gaige offered, motioning to the revolving hologram. "Our friends from orbit. Currently, down hard in the middle of a mountain range. The only way to get to them is either air, or a narrow pass here." A section of map turned red.

"We've got the air superiority for a change," Salvador pointed out. "Wanna just fly overhead and beat on 'em until they give up?"

"They _won't_ give up," Sarah said flatly. "They'll just blow the ship and the mission fails. No, we'll have to be more discreet than an airstrike."

"What about an air _drop?_" Axton asked. "We've got two stealth shuttles docked. We could fly overhead and jump in by cover of dark."

"There's something else," Gaige said. "You're going to want to see exhibit B before you make a decision about anything."

"Exhibit B?" Sarah's eyes narrowed. "What's that?"

A new image appeared next to the warship, a shimmery energy dome. It concealed most of the details, but it was just possible to make out a cluster of buildings surrounded by construction equipment. "B for base," Gaige said. "Incomplete and only partly functional, but it still has an energy shield and enough defensive weapons to be annoying." She pointed to the warship hologram. "That one was their supply ship. They say that much in the transmission we intercepted."

"You've fully decoded the voice message?" Sarah leaned forward, her voice eager. "How did you crack their signal encryption? We've never been able to get _anything_."

"A really good computer and a couple of smart siblings," Gaige said, slapping both Cassidy and Zero on the back. "Put 'em together and there's _nothing_ they can't break."

"So it would seem," Cassidy said modestly.

"Less satisfying Than a breathing enemy," Zero said. "But still challenging."

Sarah exhaled shakily and folded her hands. Her fingers were quivering. "Let me hear it."

Cassidy nodded. "I'll send it over the speaker." A burst of static crackled around the room-

[-ow bad is the damage to your engines?]

[Bad enough. We aren't getting airborne on our own. We'll need some of your drones.]

[Those drones are crucial to the construction efforts! Diverting them from their labors-]

[Means your one and only supply ship is grounded until we can get our engines working _without_ mechanized support! How much do you think _that_ will set your little project back?]

[You've got enough disposable human labor on board, use _them._ I need your supplies more than your prisoners.]

[I will _not_ let enemy combatants anywhere _near_ our mostly highly classified secrets! You're just going to have to exercise your patience.]

There was an angry sigh. [Can't your VIP do anything useful? Drones are supposed to be his specialty.]

[The little princeling isn't interested in helping us get airborne. He's playing around with the sensors. Something about explosions that didn't happen.]

[Brat's useless half the time and indispensable the other half.] An aggravated sigh leaked out. [What about the ship that attacked you? Any idea who they were?]

[No idea, but their stealth technology was better than anything I've ever fought. We didn't see them until they opened fire, and even afterwards we couldn't hold a target lock worth a damn. With everything as wrecked as it is, we'll never be able to detect them.]

[Why haven't they finished you?]

[Again, no idea. But if we move fast enough, it'll be their mistake.]

Another sigh, reluctant this time. [How long before you're ready to move?]

[Using just the men I trust, eight hours.]

[Get that down to six. Risk using some of the ones you _don't_ trust if you have to. Lots more where they came from, after all.] The speaker fell silent.

Salvador frowned slightly. "That's it?"

"That's plenty," Sarah interjected coldly. She glanced at Axton. "You caught it?"

He nodded. "'Prisoners.' 'Enemy combatants.' 'Disposable human labor.'" His eyes were filled with disgust. "They've got Dahl soldiers on board that ship."

"They dragged captured soldiers all the way out here?" Gaige frowned. "Why would they do that? There's no way it's for just slave labor, not when they've got all this drone tech."

"Whyever they brought them, it's going to force a change in our plans," Sarah said. "This can't be a simple data heist anymore. We've got to try and get them _out_."

"A rescue mission, eh?" Salvador cracked his knuckles. "Haven't done that for a while."

"And we're on a much shorter clock than I expected." Sarah turned to Cassidy. "How old is this message?"

"Nearly ninety minutes."

"Then we've got just over four to six hours before they're 'ready to move', whatever that means," Sarah said. "We need to have a strategy before then."

"Going in with guns blazing usually works for us."

Gaige looked towards the door. "Maya! Where have _you_ been?"

"Good question." Axton spun his chair around, an irritated look on his face. "You missed everything."

Maya shook her head and took a chair between Salvador and Krieg. "Trust me when I say that's not true."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"I'll explain later, I promise." Maya ignored Axton's confused and irritated glare, choosing to focus on Sarah instead. "How's the muscle pain?"

"Diminished," Sarah assured her. She rotated her arm a few times and flexed her fist. "I feel stronger than when I woke up, too."

"Glad to hear it, but don't push anything yet," Maya warned. "You still need another regen session, remember?"

"Then let's finish this meeting so I can get that out of the way," Sarah agreed. "Please enlarge the valley overview."

The image of the warship tripled its size. Sarah stared at it, a finger occasionally tapping the side of her face.

After a few minutes, Salvador coughed. "Uh... whatcha doin'?"

"Strategizing," she said distantly. "'Guns blazing' is one of my favorites too, but this time around, I can't risk starting with it." She pulled her gaze away from the ship. "I need a stealth recon first."

Salvador's face fell. "Stealth? You mean like 'sneak, sneak, don't shoot anyone'?"

The corners of Sarah's mouth twitched. "Afraid so."

"Awww." Salvador slumped in disappointment, while Krieg dropped his axe on the floor and tossed his hands up. Maya patted both their shoulders comfortingly.

Axton smirked at Zero. "At least it's right up _your_ alley."

"That's actually what I had in mind." She focused on Zero. "Can you scout that ship without being seen? Get in, get the lay of the land, then get out?"

}:) "Barely a challenge."

"Then I need you to do it, as soon as possible," Sarah ordered. "We can't afford to wait for this planet's nightfall, not now that we _know_ we're on a clock. How fast can you get there and back?"

"Getting in, all too easy." :) "No need to get out."

"Pardon?"

Zero tapped the side of his helmet. A video screen flashed up, replacing the warship. Zero raised a hand and waved. On the screen, his digital twin did the same. "Live image streaming, For all your covert op needs And requirements." He tapped his helmet again, putting the warship and base back over the table. "I will infiltrate, Gather all useful knowledge, Then unleash havoc." :) "I cut down within, You rain fire from without. We'll meet up after."

Axton mulled over the idea for a few second before nodding. "I can see that working. He's damn good at being sneaky, even better at killing."

"Mm." Sarah's lips were tight. "I appreciate the risk you're taking."

Zero shrugged. "I've faced worse before."

"How long will it take you to get to the ship?"

"A mere-"

"Hang on!" Maya interrupted. "What about the base? We can't just ignore it."

"We'll focus on it after we've captured the warship," Sarah said. "Besides, we don't have the firepower to breach a shield like that. Your ship would get picked apart by their defenses before you could bring it down."

Maya held up her clenched left fist. The marks on her arm pulsed. "We've got more firepower than just the ship. With my increased powers, I could take out those cannons myself. That would leave the _Pearl_ free to bombard the shield unhindered."

Axton glanced uncertainly at the pulsing limb barely three feet away from him. "Uh, not that I doubt your skills_..._ but you don't even know _why_ your powers are so amped up right now. Are you sure you want to risk them failing on you at a critical moment?"

Maya shot him a dirty look. "Thanks for the support."

"Actually... he's kinda right," Salvador said reluctantly.

"Sal!"

He gave Maya an apologetic shrug. "I was _there,_ remember? Your powers _did_ fail at a critical moment, it halfway killed you, and I... couldn't help you." He looked away, avoiding Maya's eyes. "I don't want you to risk your life like that again."

"I'm not letting a unicorn near a slaughterhouse!" Krieg snarled. "No matter how sharp the horn!"

"Guys, I can _do_ this!" Maya glared at around the table. "How many times have you trusted me? Trust me _now!_"

"We all trust _you,_" Gaige insisted. "It's this mysterious boost we're leery about!"

"But-"

"There's one other factor," Sarah cut in. "We know there are Dahl POWs on that ship. Right now, they need those soldiers for something. We take out the base, maybe that need vanishes." Her eyes darkened. " I won't risk leaving them in enemy hands when we attack their primary outpost. They might kill every single one of the captives."

Maya's fingers worked at the edge of the table. "That's an enemy stronghold on an almost unreachable planet," she ground out. "Isn't destroying it worth more than the lives of a few soldiers?"

The expression on Sarah's face would have frozen a lava flow. It congealed the air as she stared into Maya's furious eyes. When she finally spoke, the single word could have been chipped from ice. "No."

Maya blinked. Some of the tension and anger drained from her body. Her fingers stopped grinding into the table edge.

Sarah folded her hands and stared at Maya evenly. "The mission I'm contracting your group for is to free the Dahl POWs and take the ship. After that, I'll examine what we find and make a decision on the base. Now, if that's not satisfactory..." she crossed her arms and leaned back. "...then the mission doesn't need you."

Maya was silent for a long moment, staring contemplatively at Sarah.

Eventually, Krieg leaned towards her. "Save the fire for the raw meat," he advised. "It's not the same stripping the flesh without you."

She held the look for another few tense seconds, then sighed and nodded. "Fine. I just hope we don't regret delaying action on that place."

"No more than I do," Sarah assured her. "Are you in?"

Maya nodded. "I'm in."

A satisfied and slightly relieved expression flitted over Sarah's face. "Good." She turned back to Zero. "How soon can you be inside that ship?"

"One hour," Zero said instantly. "The _Red Tail_ is a swift craft. I'll get in quickly."

"Love the confidence. Where can we pick up your signal?"

"The bridge would be the best place," Axton suggested. "It's where we usually meet up, anyway."

"Alright." Sarah took a breath and smiled faintly at Zero. "I don't usually see a point in saying this, but... good luck."

"I've always believed Luck is for those without skill." Zero rose and flashed a }:) "I'm _very_ skillful."

"May your skills hold out, then." Sarah looked around as Zero exited the room. "Anyone have anything to add?"

"_I've_ got a question," Maya said abruptly. She was looking very closely at Sarah's pale color and slightly glassy eyes. "Have you eaten anything?"

Sarah shook her head. "We've been too busy discussing our plans."

"You shouldn't have been," Maya chided. Her anger was back, but it was cooler and aimed differently. She glared around the table at her friends. "I can't believe you guys. This woman sat with you after suffering near-fatal injuries and a draining recovery procedure, and _none_ of you thought to offer her food?"

The same guilty reaction rippled through five different people. "Whoops."

"'Whoops.'" Maya rolled her eyes. "Unbelievable."

"I don't-" Sarah began.

"You do if you want your strength back," Maya interrupted sharply. She tapped a keypad on the edge of the table. A second later, a hole opened in the tabletop and a mug of steaming liquid appeared in front of Sarah. "Start with that. It's nutrient broth. Doesn't taste like much, but it'll get your stomach working. Then you can pick some _real_ food from the ship's menu."

"There isn't-"

"There _is _still time. You said yourself you had to recover, and feeding yourself is part of that," Maya said relentlessly. "_Drink._"

Sarah gave up and took a sip. "And here I was starting to think you didn't like me, Lady Siren."

"I've seen too much of your life to not like you," Maya replied. She still sounded irritated, but the real anger was gone. "I just think we need to attack that base sooner rather than later."

"Noted. Anything else?"

After a second, Gaige raised her hand. "There is _one_ last thing."

"What's that?"

"Well... it's your ship."

Sarah frowned. "What about it?"

"It's laying out in the snow, a couple hundred miles away. If you've got any gear or anything on it, we could-"

"No!" Cassidy burst out. "It's still unsafe!"

"If the engines haven't exploded by _now- _"

"Wait, wait, hang _on _," Sarah interrupted. Her face was a mask of rigid control, but her hands trembled slightly as she set her mug down. "What do you mean, it's laying out in the snow? My ship was about a half second from going off like a bomb, I remember _that. _"

"Except it _didn't _." Gaige tapped a few controls, pulling up an image of the crippled vessel. "Against all the rules of the universe, your transport is still out there." She glared at the picture. "Enigmatic little bastard that it is."

"Still..." Sarah's haunted eyes played over the display. "Laying out there in the cold..."

"Within easy reach, too," Gaige said. "I could be there and back before Zero even gets to that cruiser."

"Gaige," Axton tried to interrupt.

She kept talking. "I could figure out why it didn't blow, pull any gear you might need..."

"_Gaige_."

She shrugged. "You never know, it might even be salvageable."

"_Gaige!_" His tone finally made her fall silent. "Leave it."

"It's fine, Axton." Sarah took a deep breath and pulled her eyes away from the display. "You said it wasn't safe?"

Cassidy nodded quickly. "The engine system are stabilizing, but they're still suspect." She fidgeted uncertainly as Gaige frowned at her, but plowed on. "I wouldn't advise approaching it any earlier than eight hours from now."

Slowly, and with obvious reluctance, Sarah nodded. "If you think that's best."

"But-!"

"No." Sarah's tone was definite. "It's not the most important thing right now. We're a handful of soldiers about to try a high risk mission against an enemy stronghold. We can't chance losing a single person right now, Vault Hunters or not." She looked Gaige square in the eye. "But I guarantee this: I _will _want a mission out there. You can feel free to lead it when the time comes."

Gaige huffed out a reluctant sigh, but nodded. "Oh, _fine_."

"Is _that _everything?" Sarah asked patiently.

"Yes," Axton said with absolute finality. "Everything else can wait until after the warship is dealt with, including the V-"

"Sarah," Maya interrupted. "When you're done eating, you should head for the medical bay. Another regeneration session will clear out the last of your muscle aches."

"I'll be glad to feel them go," Sarah said. "Now, is your food system capable of making a decent meal?"

"You can pull up the menu with the table's controls," Maya replied, standing up. "Oh, and whatever you eat, just stay away from the drink labeled 'home-brew.' It's, uh..." she glanced at Salvador. "It's got a little bit of a kick."

"Don't listen her, _senora._" He grinned at Maya. "Just because it got our resident lightweight table dancing doesn't mean it'll hit _you _the same way."

"_Salvador!_"

Krieg leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. "I can still taste the feast when I lick my eyes!"

Maya put her face in her hands, her cheeks a brilliant crimson. "You two are insufferable."

"You want insufferable?" Gaige cackled maniacally and fired a devilish grin at Axton. "Cassie, pull up the video recording from that night. Skip to the point where Axton joined in and stripped down to his-"

"That's it! Everybody out!" Axton jabbed his finger at the door. "Or _I'm _playing the video of Salvador's first shower! From _inside _the airlock!"

A handful of seconds later, the mess decks were empty save for Axton and Sarah.

She rested her chin in her hand and looked at him with a small smile. "Stripped to your what, exactly?"

* * *

><p><span>[Next week's chapter may be either a day early or late, but either way, things start to get busy. Thanks for reading!]<span>


	9. Creeping and creepy crawlies

Gaige trotted down the hall, taking the long way to the elevator. If she had Zero pegged right, he'd already be in the _Red Tail _running system checks. _Wait another two minutes, then full speed down to the shuttle bay. Thirty seconds to get up the ramp and into the _Osprey _before anyone notices... _she grinned. _Then it's bye bye, birdy. _

"Going somewhere, _hermana? _"

Gaige skidded to a halt, grimacing in frustration. "Sal!" She turned around, grinning widely. "What, uh... whatcha doin'?"

"_I'm _going to the armory," Salvador said. "How about you?"

"I'm...uh... going to check on the main guns!" Gaige improvised wildly. "Yep! Doing some calibrations! For the inevitable battles!"

Salvador smirked. "So why are you going towards the hangar?"

"I'm just... just..." She sighed and dropped the act. "Okay, I'm going to the _Osprey_. Just don't tell anyone!"

Salvador leaned against the wall. "What for?"

For a second, Gaige battled with the impulse to lie, but she couldn't think up anything plausible. "I'm going down for a quick look at Sarah's transport."

"Oh, you don't say. I _never _woulda guessed." He grinned at her.

She glared right back. "You're a dick sometimes, you know that?"

"Who isn't?" He shrugged and straightened up. "What about what Sarah said? That it wasn't important right now?"

"Didn't you catch the look in her eyes? She didn't _want _to say that." Gaige scuffed her foot on the carpet. "Besides, I can be there and back before Zero even gets into that warship. He has to sneak in. I don't."

"What if Cassidy takes control and flies the ship back?"

"I'm going to shut off all external comms as soon as I get in. The only way to fly it will be from the pilot's chair."

"How 'bout if they just bring the _Grinder _after ya?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, _then _I guess I lose. But I still wanna _try! _"

Salvador ruffled his beard thoughtfully. "I dunno, Gaige," he finally drawled. "I still think I shouldn't let you go."

"Oh, come-"

"Without me, anyway."

It took Gaige a second to find her voice. "What?"

"Bring me along, and I _can't _keep you from leaving," Salvador said innocently. "And if I happen to kill something on this planet, you help me put its head up."

Gaige hesitated. "On the mess deck?" she asked weakly.

"Nah, I'll start with my room." Salvador stuck out his hand. "Deal?"

Gaige's mind warred with itself for another few seconds, then her hand shot out. "Deal. Now let's _go. _"

They were in the elevator and headed down before Gaige thought of something. "Uh... you did mean _animal _heads, right? Not people heads?"

Salvador just grinned.

* * *

><p>Zero activated the <em>Red Tail's <em>controls. The computer whirred to life as the engines spun up. He was noted everything looked good after the space battle, that the weapons and shields had fully charged...

And that the air pressure in the cabin had changed slightly. "I knew you would come."

The air behind his chair rippled, and Cassidy flickered into sight. She looked slightly annoyed. "How did you detect me?"

"Holograms were my forte Long before your birth." Zero turned his chair to face her. "You wish to join me As I infiltrate the ship. Is my guess correct?"

There was no chagrin in his sister's face, no fear in her eyes. There was only absolute determination. "I'm unwilling to let you wander into that warship solo. And stealth _is _a family skill."

"Stealth is not enough," Zero said flatly. "Bloodshed will be required." He kept his faceplate blank. "Do you feel prepared?"

"I have the skills to slay any who present problems," Cassidy said firmly. "_ That _flows in the family tree, too. From both branches."

"In a true battle, Hesitation means your death," Zero warned. "No chance for rewrites."

"I _have _fought and killed," Cassidy insisted. "And _he _was kin."

"That was one battle In a group six weeks ago," Zero countered. "You're _sure _you're ready?"

Cassidy held his gaze for another few seconds, then shook her head. "No one is ever entirely ready for any event. We just give everything we've got to the goal." She stared back into his faceplate, challenge growing in her expression. "And anyway, how ready did you feel the first time _you _fought? Besides..." she glanced at the door, as if to make sure it was still closed. "Mom hadn't mastered mass murder prior to Pandora. Even she had to start somewhere."

':| "I still harbor doubts That Gaige wants to be called 'mom'. Doesn't seem the type."

"Maybe." For a brief second, something like regret flickered in Cassidy's eyes. "But Mother isn't inside the ship this second, so I'll say it."

"What about the ship?" Zero pointed out. "Who pilot the vessel When we call for it?"

"That's not even a potential problem." She held up her wrist, and he saw a remote command pad attached. "I can call the craft to us with one button, or set the system to act in the _absence _of a signal. In either event, the autopilot will rush to our rescue while engaging any enemies as necessary." She folded her arms and stared hard at Zero. "So? Will you allow me to accompany you openly, or do I have to hide in the cargo compartment?"

:) Zero nodded. "You're welcome to join. I just wanted to make sure That _you _were certain."

Cassidy smiled tightly and jumped over the back of the pilot's chair. "Then let's get set to go save some..." She trailed off and twisted her head around, trying to get a look out at the shuttle bay. "Did you just see something?"

Before Zero could answer, the low rumble of engines rattled through the ship. "What the holy _hell?! _" He spun around just in time to see the _Osprey _disconnect from the hull and zip away across the snow.

She leaned over his shoulder, staring in disbelief. "Did someone just steal our shuttle?!"

"In a manner of speaking." Zero played back the video footage from the shuttle bay a minute earlier. Two figures sprinted through the door and into the just departed shuttle. "Gaige and Salvador."

Cassidy's face fell. "Oh _man _, Mom."

"Yes." "That's _your _mother, sis."

She gave him her best defiant expression. "I am _so _sneaking into that ship with you, sibling."

:D "And you do take after her."

* * *

><p>Maya stood on the bridge, arms crossed and glaring at the base hologram. She was so busy imagining the structure burning to the ground, she didn't even hear the elevator slide out of the floor.<p>

"Bacon for your mind-words, Pretty Lady?" Krieg's heavy footsteps thudded over the deck until he was at her side. "You look like you've got chewing problems."

_Oh, fantastic. _"Think I'd rather deal with my thoughts on my own right now," Maya said shortly. "Unless you think my mind is going to fail me at a key point, too."

Her voice brought him to a dead stop. "You've held on to the hate bees, then?"

"Of _course _I'm still angry," she snapped, spinning to face him. "What did you expect? All we've been through together, all the fighting and killing, all the times we've kept each other alive, and _now _is when you don't have my back? In front of an outsider, with an enemy at the gates?!" Her breath huffed out furiously. "Thanks a _lot. _"

Krieg flinched, but held his ground. "Who can risk juggling glass eggs?" he growled. It was a tiger's whimper, a wolf's sob. "It's a spectacle too easy to destroy."

"I don't break that easily!" Maya insisted, half-yelling. "Whatever you all think, I _know _I have the power to take out that base, and that it won't fail me. I _know _it!" She shook her head and turned back to the hologram, frustration mixed with hurt swirling in her chest. "I can't believe that you don't trust me."

She heard Krieg gurgling something in his throat. She expected another growl, a comment about meat or fire or-

"I...do..._ Maya. _"

Her eyes widened. She turned around, her hand going to her mouth. "Krieg? Did you..."

"I'd let you reach into my brain and tickle the pain center!" he snarled. "I'd pet a hedgehog with my face if you said it'd purr! But I don't want to see you win the race if you choke on the turtle!"

Maya hesitated, looking intently at him. His body posture was the same as ever, his voice its customary shout.

Except he had actually said her name. Maya could hardly believe it. She was halfway tempted to play back the bridge video just to be sure. But there was something else in Krieg's eye, something a little more... _sane _than usual.

It was enough to dissipate the cloud of anger in her mind.

"All right, Krieg." She reached up to pat his shoulder. "You're forgiven." She managed to work up a half-smile. "The others will probably have to grovel a little more."

Diabolical laughter rumbled out of his chest. "I'll bring jerky and 3-d glasses!"

"Maybe I'll share it with you." Maya sighed and turned back to the hologram. "I know you're all only concerned for my well being. It's just...that _thing. _" Maya glared at the base. "That place is trouble, Krieg. It's trouble that we need to deal with quickly, and I'll never be able to convince anyone of that because I can't even explain how I know it." Her gloved hand traced over her left arm for the millionth time in her life. "Not even to myself."

"Why can't you run the firehose?"

"Because it doesn't make sense." She pulled up a holoscreen and started manipulating the data. "Let me show you something. It's why I was late to the meeting." A globe of the world four feet across appeared before them. "I started with a basic sensor image of the planet." She tapped another few controls. "Then I took out all of the non-solid, non-mineral elements..." The water and plant life vanished, leaving a blue mud ball hovering in the air. "And then everything that doesn't have a crystalline molecular structure."

Massive chunks of the planet's image dropped away. The only things that remained were the mountains. They formed a shape, rougher than the one in her vision, but unmistakeable all the same.

A massive Vault symbol, stretching from pole to pole.

Krieg's eye widened. "That's a _big _Twinkie."

"I haven't even shown you the best part." Maya tapped another few keys. The original globe hologram reappeared next to the stripped away version. "This is where the base is." A red dot flashed on the globe. "Now, look where it falls on the extracted map." The two images merged into one.

The red dot glowed at the peak of the Vault symbol.

Krieg gave a suspicious growl. "There's never been a burglary in this town! How'd they find the safe?" He glanced sideways at Maya. "How did _you _find the safe?"

She gave him a weary smile. "Would you believe me if I said I saw it in a dream?"

"_I _dream of killer aardvarks and the ravages of anthills!"

"I'll...assume that was a yes." She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Nothing about this place has made sense since we entered orbit, and it is starting to drive...me..._crazy_." Her breath hissed out through clenched teeth. "I came here for answers, not _more_ goddamned mysteries."

They both stared at the map in silence for a minute. Then...

"You didn't share the feast of treasure and blood," Krieg growled. "Why hoard the barbecue?"

"Where would I start?" Maya asked helplessly. "I don't know _why _I know about this, I don't know _why _it's so important that we take out the base..." Her finger tightened on her arms. "And I'm not totally sure we should tell Sarah about the Vault, either."

"You don't trust Guinevere?"

"Guinevere's actions led to the fall of Camelot," Maya pointed out. "Think about where she's coming from. Dahl had interests on Pandora, the most famous Vault planet, for thirty years before they were driven off. They've got a massive army, and they're losing a _war. _" Her jaw clenched. "This world has a Vault symbol made out of _mountain ranges _. For all we know, the whole _planet _could be the Vault, and god only knows what that might mean for its contents." She rubbed her mouth. "What Hyperion would have done with the Warrior is bad enough. Can you imagine what _anyone _might do with a Vault like _this? _"

Krieg gave an uneasy shudder. "One butcher is as bad as the other."

"Exactly. We _have _to destroy that base, and make sure Dahl doesn't get _its _claws into the planet, either." Her face darkened. "And I've got no idea how to do that with a devoutly loyal Dahl commando on our ship and her still in love ex-husband, who happens to be my _friend _, by her side." _Nothing I could forgive myself for doing, anyway. _

A subtle _thud_, more sensed than heard, rippled up through the deckplates.

Maya frowned. "Did you feel that?"

Krieg's answer was a wordless shout. He jabbed his arm towards the dome.

She spun around just in time to see one of their shuttles racing towards the horizon. Maya's eyes were just sharp enough to catch the battle damage on its aft section. "That's not the _Red Tail. _What's Zero doing?" She keyed her ECHO. "Zero? Zero, you there?"

[Yes.]

"Did you just launch? I thought you were taking the _Red Tail, _not the _Osprey. _"

[I have not yet launched. Someone else has left the ship.] Maya could almost hear his :D [Have a guess on who?]

"Oh, for the love of-" Maya switched on her ECHO. "Axton, are you there?"

[Yeah, Maya, Sarah and I were just headed for the medical bay. What's up?]

"You're not going to _believe_ this one."

* * *

><p>Gaige leaned back in her seat and giggled madly as the <em>Osprey <em>raced over the snow. "How long do you think it'll take 'em to figure it out, Sal? A minute? Two?"

"I give it-" A light started blinking on the radio. "Whoo. Even faster that I guessed."

Gaige snickered again. "Let's see who's calling." She pressed the receive button-

[What the _hell, _Gaige?!]

[What in the six galaxies are you _doing?! _]

Salvador raised an eyebrow. "Ooo, Axton _and _Maya. Not bad."

Gaige didn't bother turning on the transmitter. She just sat back and listened, her grin getting wider and wider as the muddled shouting continued. After about thirty seconds, both voices abruptly cut out. "What, they're done already?"

"Maybe they're gonna take turns."

[Gaige, this is Sarah.]

She glanced at Salvador. "Huh. Didn't see that one coming."

[I can see you're receiving. You don't have to answer, but I do ask that you listen.]

Gaige and Salvador exchanged puzzled looks, but didn't say anything. Sarah didn't sound angry, but she didn't exactly sound amused, either. Just... businesslike.

[I would have preferred you wait until later to go to my ship. You pilot is still telling us it isn't safe, and everyone _here _believes her. In deference to that, and your group's individualistic spirit,] (she said this with somewhat dubious approval) [we aren't coming after you. And, since you're dead set on going out to my ship, I'm going to offer you the mission I was saving for later.

[My quarters are up the main hall of my ship, about twenty yards from the bridge. Double doors on the right. I doubt you'll need the access code, but if you do, it's eleven, twenty-three, seventy-five. Inside, behind a picture on the wall, you will find a safe. _Its _code is letters, not numbers, so enter...] Sarah's voice picked up a tinge of embarrassment, [Ess-Ell-Ay-En-Ay-Ay.]

Gaige found herself trying to spell it in her head. _S...L...A...N...A...A...? _

[There's a black metal case in there. Even if the ship _had _gone up, that case would be intact. Get it, bring it back to me.] She fell silent for a few seconds. When she spoke again, she was clearly fighting for control of her voice.

[There's... an additional task. The bodies of my three fallen soldiers are... still in there. They deserve better than to be left just laying out in the cold. In honor of their service, please try and retrieve their tags for me. Once you've done that...] a sigh drifted out from the radio. [I want you try and destroy my ship.]

Gaige stared at the radio. "Did she _seriously_ just-"

[I won't be able to bring them home for proper burial. My team deserves some semblance of a decent funeral, and cremation with the vessel they died trying to save is the best I can do. If the self destruct functions, use that. It will create a nuclear pyre visible from here, and I think they'd all approve. If it's too badly damaged to self destruct, leave it alone. When this is all over, perhaps I can call on you to destroy it with your own ship's weapons.]

The radio fell silent.

"Well," Gaige finally said, "that wasn't the mission I was expecting."

Salvador shrugged. "We gonna do it?"

"If we can," she answered. "The case sounds like the easiest thing to find. I don't know how much luck we'll have looking for a few dog tags. As for blowing the thing up..." She shrugged. "Until we find out why that ship didn't explode in the first place, I've got no idea if traditional self-destruct is even an option."

Salvador squinted at the horizon. "Looks like we're about to find out. Isn't that where we dropped it?"

Gaige magnified the image of the landscape. Piles of snow were heaped to either side of a short furrow. "It's definitely an impact trench," she confirmed. "Hang on, I'm gonna do a flyby."

The _Osprey _wheeled around, coming up directly behind the transport. Salvador whistled as he saw the blackened hull, twisted metal, and leaking fluids. "Looks even worse up close."

"No kidding." Gaige tapped the controls. "I'm gonna see if I can get a decent scan on the engines. Maybe from here, whatever is stabilizing the ship will be more visible than it was back on the _Pearl. _.. huh." Gaige trailed off as the scanner results came in. "That's weird."

"_Que es? _"

"There's some kind of... mineral deposits on the hull." She examined the display more closely. "The scanner can't tell what it is, though."

"So? There's rocks on the hull, big deal. It crashed, rocks went everywhere."

"Yeah, but... I think these minerals are draining the overload power."

Salvador scratched his head. "Rocks can do that?"

"On this planet, maybe." Gaige spun the shuttle around. "Let's go take a closer look."

"At _rocks? _"

"Power _draining _, rocks, Sal." Gaige's eyes were glinting as she maneuvered the ship down. "There might be some real technological potential here."

"For... _rocks. _"

"Yeah! Imagine if this mineral could be manufactured! If it can absorb energy just by touching a power source, there's all _kinds _of applications!" Her imagination kicked into overdrive, whirling with possibilities. "You could line armor with it, maybe even starship plating! You'd just soak up whatever energy got fired at you! Or, or, or you could hook it up to a windmill! It'd store all the energy the machine generated with just a pile of mineral, no need for batteries! We could-" she noticed a slightly glazed expression coming into Salvador's eyes and changed tactics. "Uuhhh... we could... figure out a way to make exploding bullets with it?"

He brightened. _"Now _you're talkin', _hermana! _Let's go!"

Gaige nodded. "I'm going to leave the ship hovering a few feet off the ground. If there _is _some kind of power-sucking material in the dirt, I don't want it coming in contact with _our _ship." The _Osprey _hovered to a slow stop. "Come on. We'll use the manual escape ladder at the machine shop airlock. No power in that thing."

A few minutes later, they were standing in ankle-deep slush, snow melted by the _Osprey's _engines as it hovered quietly overhead. Salvador shivered slightly as his shield adapted to the cold. "Damn. Shoulda brought a jacket."

"If you'd stopped for one, I'd have left you behind," Gaige said distractedly. She examined her ECHO, reading a data feed from the shuttle. "Looks like the highest mineral concentration is on the left side of the transport. Come on."

The picked their way across the trench of disturbed blue snow. The pathway created by the crash was wide enough for them to walk side by side, walls of ice mounting high around them. Occasional patches of muddy ground were visible where the transport had scraped down to the frozen dirt, and every few feet, some piece of metal or other debris decorated the ground.

"With all this ripped off, I'm surprised there's much ship left," Salvador commented.

"Does that mean you're starting to understand my frustration with it not blowing up?"

"Maybe a little."

"Cool." Gaige glanced at her ECHO once more, circled around the side of the transport... and froze. "What the hell are _those? _"

Glistening, slippery looking, purplish-yellow tubes about the size of Salvador's forearm covered the entire port side of the ship. A faint sucking, squeaking noise filled the air, and the whole side of the ship seemed to be pulsing.

Salvador squinted at the objects, trying to get a better view. "They look... kinda like grubs."

"Ugh. That's what I thought you'd say." Gaige's face screwed into the perfect image of the word revulsion. "And I really, really hoped you _wouldn't _."

Salvador had to laugh at her squeamish expression. "Don't like big, juicy grubs, _hermana? _"

"I don't like little, dry grubs!"

"Don't blame ya," he said lightly. "Dry ones don't really squish right when you chew 'em, and little ones just aren't filling. Plus, they don't-"

"SAL! Eeew!"

"_Lo siento, _Gaige." He grinned. "Mostly."

"Like I said: dick." Gaige shivered, but it had nothing to do with the cold. "Bleah! Gimme solid metal over gooey organics _any _day!"

"Well, there's gooey things all over the shuttle," Salvador pointed out. "We're gonna have to get closer if you wanna find these magic rocks of yours."

"Wrong." Gaige slipped her ECHO device back onto her belt and materialized a sniper rifle. "I'll pick 'em off a section of hull first. Then at least they'll be _dead _gooey things. I'm used to _that _."

Salvador looked uneasily at the sniper rifle. "You sure you wanna do that?"

"What do you mean?" Gaige raised the rifle and sighted a grub.

"Well, that ship is still iffy, right? Like, could go _kablooie _iffy?" he pointed out. "You're really gonna _shoot _at it?"

"Relax. There's like a one in ten thousand chance I hit something that'll set off an explosion."

"Sure, but you don't really _aim _very much, do you?"

Gaige pulled her eye away from the scope and glared down at him. "What, so I should let _you _do the shooting? You aim even less than I do!"

"_Si, _but at least it's only the stuff in _front _of me that blows up when _I _shoot. I've seen you headshot a guy half a mile away when you _meant _to hit someone six inches from your gun barrel."

She waved her hand dismissively. "You say that like it's a _bad _thing." She sighted again. "Just watch."

Gaige fired. For once, her shot was perfectly accurate. No sniper's bullet had ever flown so smoothly out the barrel of a gun, lanced through the air so delicately, or punctured the juicy, slimy flesh of an oversized larva so cleanly. Zero would have been proud to call the shot his own.

Until the grub exploded.

The Hunters staggered as the shockwave washed over them. Gaige had a split second to notice her shields had dropped by a third-

A second grub emitted a high-pitched shriek and detonated. This time, the blast flung both Hunters backward into a snowdrift, collapsing each of their shields.

Fortunately, the powder protected them from the worst of the third and fourth blasts.

The blast echos rolled away into the distance, and silence gradually fell over the tundra. The only remaining sound was the gentle squelch of the surviving grubs sucking contentedly on the hull of the transport.

Eventually, Salvador felt safe enough to push his head out of the snow and look around. "So... _that _was fun."

_"_Exploding._.. larva!_" Gaige punched her way clear of the snow, fuming in both the literal and figurative sense of the word. "_Chain reacting, _exploding larva! What the hell kind of worm _explodes _when you shoot it?!" She slapped a handful of snow on her jacket to douse the flames. "That is _so _not cool!" Gaige squeezed out a small flame at the end of her pigtail and glared at the maggot encrusted ship, grinding her teeth. "Something is _really _weird here, Sal."

"Yeah, you actually hit what you were aiming for."

"Not what I meant. Also?" She gave him a playful shove back into the snow. "Shut up."

Salvador clambered back to his feet and brushed snow out of his beard. "What did you mean, _hermana? _"

"How many exploding things have we ever fought?" Gaige pulled out her ECHO device again.

"Uh..." Salvador frowned and tried to think back over the legions of enemies he'd killed over the years. "Including robots and guys with grenades?"

"Nope. Naturally explosive."

"Ummmmm... do mutated super-varkids count?"

"Again, nope."

Salvador shrugged. "Beats me. Crystalisks when they die, I guess."

"Yeah, that was pretty much my list, too." Gaige scowled at her ECHO as she pressed the keys. "So how do these... oh, _damn _."

"What?" Salvador tried to peer at the screen. "Whadya find?"

"My worst nightmare." Gaige sighed and waved her arm at the slimy creatures. "Those... things on the hull? They're extracting energy from the transport's engines. _They're _the reason it didn't blow up!"

"Wait, it's the worms now? I thought it was rocks."

"It looks like what I read as a mineral was part of their biology." She sighed at the blank look on Salvador's face. "Something in the worms is letting them drain and store power from the ship's systems. Their skin, or maybe some internal organ."

"Maybe it's their slime."

"Stop _saying _things like that! _Ew! _"

"_No lo siento, _this time." Salvador looked at the squishy creatures with new interest. "Worms that eat energy, huh? Never heard of that before."

"Not to mention they explode when shot." She stuffed the ECHO away and glowered at the larva. "But you're right, I've never heard of anything like them, either. I didn't even think a living creature could metabolize energy like that." She rubbed her chin. "I wonder how they do it? Are they some kind of organic battery?"

"Just let me know if you're gonna cut one open," Salvador said, chuckling. "I want time to duck."

"No kidding." Gaige stared at the larvae for a few more seconds, then sighed. "Well, that's disappointing. Weird, disgusting, bug babies are _not _the reason I was hoping for."

"What _were _you hoping for?"

"I dunno, something less _gross _." She started towards the ship. "Come on, let's see if we can find these personal effects Sarah wanted."

"Ok." Salvador pointed to the rear of the transport. The cargo bay door hung in ragged shreds, giving the impression of jagged metal teeth around a dark maw. "Looks like that's our way in."

"As the only part of the hull _not _crawling in grubs, yeah."

The ship had crashed at an angle, putting the opening about chest height to both Hunters. Gaige and Salvador hauled themselves up and into the battered ship, moving carefully on the slanted, debris laden floor.

"So what's the plan?" Salvador asked. "Find the stuff, blow the place?"

"I'm thinking divide and conquer," Gaige said, easing down the slanted floor. "You try to find the dog tags and the safe, I'll see if there's any bridge control left. If the whole system is completely shot, we'll do like she asks and plan on using the _Pearl's _guns." She picked her way over a hunk of ceiling. "Or we could just go back to shooting grubs."

"What's that gonna do?"

"If the worms _are _soaking up the excess reactor power, and we kill the worms, the power core will spiral back up into overload. The ship will blow up on its own, just like it was always supposed to."

Salvador smiled deviously as he worked his way towards the cargo bay door. "I bet those grubs won't like us taking pot shots at 'em. Think we'll get 'em to attack? Throw their little gooey selves at us, maybe?"

"First off, ew. Secondly, _ew. _Third, they're _larva _, what are they gonna do, slime us to death? And last of all..." she turned to Salvador, holding the door for stability. "Ew ew ew yuck _bleah! _"

* * *

><p><span>[In case it wasn't clear, this: ':| is Zero's version of a raised eyebrow.]<span>

[Next week, a few people have a really bad day. Thanks for reading!]


	10. Know your enemy

"There's one thing I don't understand right now," Axton said. He was leaning against the wall in Sarah's quarters, arms folded and staring at the half-closed bathroom door. Zero's video feed hovered to his right, just inside his peripheral vision.

"Let me guess," Sarah called dryly. "Why am I getting dressed in private when you helped me strip?"

"Nah, I figured that one's just because you didn't want to risk becoming overwhelmed with lust and jumping me now that you've got your strength back."

"Interesting guess..."

_I notice you didn't say _no...

"...but what you _really_ want to ask is why I didn't chase after your shuttle, isn't it?"

"Bingo. You specifically told Gaige not to leave until we were done with the warship. All that stuff about respecting our independence aside, it still weakens our manpower if she and Salvador don't get back in time for the attack."

"True."

"And as much as you" _loved _"cared for your team, I don't think you're so sentimental that you'd risk mission compromise for your fallen."

"You're right," Sarah said evenly. "I _am_, however, optimistic enough to believe that subtracting two of your team _won't_ compromise the mission. That affords me just enough sentimentality to allow the reduction in manpower." Something in the bathroom went _zip_. "Besides, we were never going to be able to keep Gaige here without a total lockdown, and _that_ certainly wouldn't have gone over well."

"Time was, you would've risked pissing her off," Axton pointed out. "If a soldier under you command pulled a stunt like Gaige's, you'd" _tell him to run for the border planets_ "have 'em cleaning latrines. For a month. With half a toothbrush and one square of toilet paper."

"Your people aren't my soldiers."

"Principle's the same," Axton insisted. "Besides, I've seen you snap mercs back so hard they got whiplash. What's the deal?"

For a long moment, there was only the soft rustle of Sarah donning her clothes. "I learned a few things on Acheron," she finally said. "One of them was that sometimes, you need to let the young ones follow their hunches. They might just lead you somewhere useful."

"Or they blow up someone they're supposed to protect."

"Different situation. Gaige is curious, you used an asset as bait for a trap. Besides, you're not that young, either."

Axton winced. "Ouch. Always nice to hear tender words of affection from my dear, sweet wife."

"We're divorced, remember? I'm supposed to be a heartless, bitter shrew that you despise."

"Bitter shrews don't blow up their husband's assassins, then send a flirty text message," Axton quipped. After a second's pause... "Thanks for that, by the way."

"For what?"

"Jarter. That sergeant you killed on Pandora."

"Oh, _that._" Sarah's tone turned lofty. "Jarter, ironically enough, was officially AWOL. I was executing a deserter." The sounded of a pistol chambering a round echoed out of the bathroom. "He never bothered to make certain his leave paperwork hadn't vanished halfway up the chain."  
>Axton smirked. "Lemme guess. It got circular filed?"<p>

"Went to the 451 outbox," Sarah corrected. "Harder to reconstruct ash." She pushed the door open and stepped back into the main cabin, arms held apart. "What do you think? And _don't_ say something juvenile," she added quickly. "I need your honest evaluation as a soldier, not an adolescent appraisal of my assets."

Axton blinked, then grinned and shook his head.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Not one damn thing, honey." He ran his eyes up and down Sarah's body. Her uniform was spotless and perfectly mended. The slump was gone from her posture, her hands were steady, and the fire in her eyes was more vivid than ever. "You look good," he assured her. "Like you're gonna go kick ass for the man."

"No." Sarah's gaze was far away. "Not for 'the man'. Not this time."

"Right." Axton motioned to the video feed. "You picked a good time to finish up. Looks like Zero's about to head in."

"Then we should probably get to your bridge," Sarah said, opening the door. "We'll need to be ready when he calls for us. How fast is this ship of yours?"

Axton grinned with pride as he walked next to her. "Fast enough. Even the _Fence's_ upgraded engines aren't this quick." A stray thought occurred. "I'm assuming you kept the name, too. Or was I wrong?"

"After all the hassle we went through renaming my transport _The White Picket Fence_, do you really think I'd change it just because you left?" She paused. "What do you mean, 'too'?"

Axton shrugged and walked a little slower. "The code to the cargo bay was still our anniversary. The code to your quarters was still my birthday. And even though I'm not sure the 'And Always' part is still true, SLANAA still means-"

"Yes, I kept the name," Sarah cut him off. "I kept all that." He could feel her gaze on his neck. "While you kept my ring."

Axton resisted the urge to grab the ring laying against his chest. "Yeah."

"Even after I said I never liked diamonds." Her voice was almost... guilty.

_Yeah, right. _That_ one you're imagining._ "It was like three paychecks," Axton shrugged. "I wasn't gonna throw it out an airlock."

"You could've sold it. I'm sure you must have needed the money at some point." It was funny how he could feel Sarah's eyes on him, even while she was looking straight ahead. "I always imagined you probably used it to bribe a pilot to get you to Pandora, or pawned it for a new gun."

"Nah. No need. You can find a gun in the trash if you're _really_ desperate."

"Axton..." Sarah hesitated, then plunged ahead. "Were you... happy? On Pandora?"

"Happy?" Axton glanced her, slightly confused by the question. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, were you _happy_ there?" Sarah persisted. "Was life on that crazy, lawless world all that you could hope for? Did you ever wake up and think to yourself, 'man, I'm glad I'm here today! I sure did make the right decision!'?"

Axton had to laugh. "Well, it _was_ nice to wake up without reveille blasting in my ears." They came up to the elevator and he pressed the call button.

"So I imagine."

"I did meet up with an awesome group of people." The elevator arrived, the doors slid open, and they both stepped in.

"Very true."

"_Not _to mention I killed the biggest asshole born in the last century or two." The lift began its way up to the bridge.

That one evoked a tiny smile. "_There's_ a feat to be proud of."

Axton nodded. "Yeah, life back there was pretty good. Life on this ship is pretty good, too." He paused as the elevator began to slow. "Only one thing really could have it made it better then. Or, just maybe, better now."

The smile vanished like a spark in a hurricane. "Don't say it, Ax. Please don't."

He shook his head. "I won't. We've got a mission to complete. Besides, I know you're not going to abandon those prisoners to the not-so-tender mercies of an enemy. Still..." He shrugged. "We've got a big ship. We can take a lot of passengers. Just maybe, after all this is over..."

Sarah gave him a pained look. "_Axton_..."

"But, that's the future. Right now, we've got a ship to capture and some soldiers to rescue." He motioned to the open doors and the bridge outside. "Shall we?"

* * *

><p>Zero kept the <em>Red Tail<em> low and slow as they flew towards the downed cruiser. They still had hours on the clock, and he knew from past experience how critical stealth could be when infiltrating an enemy stronghold.

As long as it wasn't Pandora, anyway. Stealth didn't _exist_ there.

He heard Cassidy clear her throat behind him. "What do you think?"

Zero turned and ran a quick eye over his sister. Shields, grenades, a set of his old elbow blades, but... "You're not wearing guns."

Cassidy shrugged and dropped into the co-pilots chair. "_You_ stick to your sword as much as situations allow."

"You don't have a sword, either." :[ "You can't go unarmed."

Cassidy huffed out an irritable sigh and digistructed a bladed pistol into her left hand. "I'm armed, I'm armed." The gun vanished. "It's just that I wanted to test my true talents instead of shooting every enemy soldier we see." Her fingertips hummed faintly, surrounded by a faint blue glow. "Call it a challenge."

':] "Have it your way, then." They sat in silence for a few minutes, then he said, "She can take care of herself. You shouldn't worry."

Cassidy didn't even try to deny it. "_Why _wouldn't she heed my warning?" She burst out. "Why was investigating that infernal wreck worth risking herself?!"

Zero shrugged. "She's a Vault Hunter," he said. "We _thrive_ on danger and risk, Seeking adventure." :/ "You know the feeling. If you didn't feel the same, You wouldn't be here." He rotated his seat to face her. "Be honest with me. You're more hurt she ignored you Than afraid for her."

"No!"

Zero merely stared at her, his blank faceplate inscrutable. Cassidy stared back defiantly, her expression daring him, brother or not, to push the issue further.

The console beeped softly, drawing his attention. _Saved by the bell, sis. _"We're approaching the target. Get ready to move." He looked out the window. "I have the mountain."

Cassidy sat up straight and stared into the distance, the discussion shoved aside. "So I see."

The gray granite spire lanced upwards from the horizon. It was part of a mountain range, but dwarfed all the peaks around it. The smaller mountains glimmered in the sunlight, their surfaces laden with a sapphire-colored mineral. This one jutted out from its crystalline brothers, a solid spike of plain rock with only trees to break up its uniformity.

"Where did the warship wipe out?" Cassidy asked.

"A small valley halfway up." He reduced engine speed, and the _Red Tail_ slowed to a hover several hundred feet below the crest of a tree-lined ridge. "The target is up there."

Cassidy nodded and tapped the control pad on her arm. "Aft airlock accessed." She looked up at him. "Are you going to contact our craft? Start sending your visual signal?"

Zero nodded and tapped the side of his helmet. A light blinked on interior display, indicating the _Grinder _was now showing a video feed from his suit's camera. "Done."

She broke into the timeless, eager grin of a young soldier about to kick ass for the first time. "Let's go after some _action._"

}:) "A fine plan, sister." He stood up and tapped his ECHO device. A pair of metal blocks materialized in his hands. Zero attached one to his belt and held out the other to Cassidy. "Here."

Cassidy took the object and traced her fingers over one of the narrow, darker bands of metal wrapped around it. "You've utilized this trick before?"

"Quite successfully." Zero opened the cockpit door and headed towards the machine shop, Cassidy right behind him. "They never see it coming." He fingered the sword hilt on his belt. "Or anything else."

"If you say so." Cassidy continued turning the block over in her hands. "When should I adjust the ship's angle?"

"Once we're on the roof," Zero said. He stepped into the machine shop and crossed over to the airlock. "I want a clear line of sight Before I decide." He opened the inner door and stepped in.

Cassidy followed and sealed the door behind her. "Ready."

Zero opened the outer door. He snaked his hand into a narrow groove over the door and pulled, heaving himself outside. Keeping his body pressed against the hull, Zero started climbing towards the roof.

Climbing up the _Red Tail's _side proved much simpler than sprinting across the _Grinder's_ underbelly. No biting, gale force winds, for one thing.

Once he had reached the top of the shuttle, Zero pulled the metal block off his belt and set it on the hull. He clicked a tiny switch, and the dark bands glowed green. The sides of the block slid outward, magnetically locking to the hull as it grew. The expansion continued until the pad was fully expanded and anchored. The glowing green strips of metal pulsed brightly, indicating the power supply was fully cycled up.

The portable jump pad was ready for use.

Zero looked to his left and saw Cassidy had done the same with her device. He looked over and flashed up '?'

She responded with a thumbs up and tried to shout a question back.

Zero shook his head. Even running in silent hover mode, the _Red Tail's _engines were too loud to speak over while they were standing on its hull. {Go ultrasonic.}

Cassidy nodded and tapped her throat. She asked the question again, this time using their family's unique communication method. {Have you approximated the appropriate angle?}

Zero glanced at the ridge overhead. His interior display flashed up the wind speed, air density, distance to the mountain. He ran the numbers twice, just to be certain. If his math was too low, he'd end up a smear on the mountainside. Too high, he'd catapult too close to the warship and end up a_ bullet-riddled_ smear on the ground.

The numbers checked. Zero relayed the information to Cassidy, then depressed a button on the side of his jump pad and knelt over it. He watched as she adjusted the_ Red Tail's_ pitch, perched like a sprinter itching for the starting gun. He could feel the slight push as the device overcharged. _A few more seconds..._

The jump pad turned red.

{Now!}

Zero released the switch. No longer restrained, the pad hurled him through the air. He straightened his body, cutting down his wind resistance. He watched his helmet display track the arc of his trajectory...

The calculations had been perfect. Zero's momentum depleted exactly as he crested the lip of the valley. He landed with hardly a rustle of the blue grass under foot, well away from the ship and cliff edge.

Cassidy's landing kicked up a small cloud of dust, but nothing worse. Her eyes were shining with exhilaration as she looked at Zero. "That was _fun! _Can we f-"

Zero clapped a hand over her mouth and held a finger to his faceplate. {Stealth is paramount With the insertion complete. _Stay_ ultrasonic.}

{Right.} Her face worked its way back to serious. {My bad, brother.} She looked down into the valley at the fallen cruiser. {What now? Work our way to the warship?}

{Very discreetly,} Zero agreed. {We wait for the right moment To reveal ourselves.}

{Got it.}

Zero motioned to the surrounding trees. {We take the high road.}

The warship had chewed through a wide swath of forest as it made its forced, unstable landing, but enough large trees remained for Zero's purpose. Approaching from the treetops reduced the chance of anyone seeing them with a simple glance, the thick, dark blue leaf cover affording greater opportunities for stealth. Even more advantageous, there didn't seem to be any outside activity.

Cassidy had noted that as well. {No people patrolling the perimeter. Wonder why.}

{Shorthanded, I hope,} Zero said. {So much damage to repair, Too few crewmembers.} He pointed to a section of the warship's hull. A hole nearly ten feet across gaped at them, red light spilling out of the wound. {Let's go in through there.}

The rip led into a large storeroom, still bearing the signs of battle. Scorch marks from recently doused fires, light fixtures dangling from the ceiling... and several bodies laying where they'd fallen.

{Do you think they're Dahl?} Cassidy asked grimly. {Sarah's detainees?}

Zero examined one of the bodies quickly and shook his head. {No insignia.} He started forward towards a large blast door, nearly twelve feet across. {Let's see if this will open.} He pressed the keypad on the wall.

The door sprang into two halves and retracted into the wall with an uncomfortably loud _clang_. Zero's hand dropped to his sword, but no alarms sounded. {What a shame.} He glanced back at Cassidy. :( {No guards.}

She just rolled her eyes.

The halls stayed silent and empty as they progressed. Even the ambient noises Zero had come to expect from starship operations were missing. The ship itself was bigger than he'd expected: the corridors were wider and higher the_ Grinder's_, but with none of its lavish environment.

{It's a very stark ship,} Cassidy noted. {Just steel and silence.}

{All this ship is for Is the practice of killing,} Zero pointed out. {This is no one's home.} A glowing panel in the wall caught his eye. {Look.}

{A computer console!} Cassidy darted over.

Zero winced inwardly at her lack of caution, but again, the halls remained silent.

{It's fully functional!} she reported. {Should I see if I can suss out the soldiers?}

{If you can do it Without raising the alarm,} Zero said. {I'll keep you covered.}

{Clear.} Cassidy started typing rapidly. A symbol flashed onto the screen briefly, some kind of elaborate lightning bolt shooting from equally stylized clouds. It quickly spun off into a corner, and a scrambled, shaky user interface appeared. {The mainframe is _mangled_. It's only running rudimentary security.} She smiled tightly. {Should I do the datapull Sarah initially sought?}

{Not necessary,} Zero pointed out. {Capturing the ship nets all.} He took one last look down either direction, then turned to watch the screen. {Find the prisoners.}

{Right.} Cassidy pressed a few more keys. After a few minute's search, she managed to pull up a floorplan of the ship. {There's no designated detention center,} she noted, {but there _is_ a sealed sector on the starboard aft section. Far from weapons systems, or anything else worrisome to the wardens.}

{Ideal for jailing,} Zero agreed. {Let's see how-}

A shrill, braying alarm resounded throughout the ship. The overhead lights began to flash, and suddenly voices came echoing all around them. Further down the corridor, doors thundered open, and footsteps pounded over the metal deckplates.

Zero looked sharply at Cassidy. {Did you-}

{No!} Cassidy yanked her hands away from the keyboard. {Whatever happened, I didn't do it!}

Zero was about to say something when a flash of motion caught his eye- _{DOWN!}_

Cassidy flung herself aside as Zero lunged forward, his sword flaring to life-

-and skewered the soldier behind her. His gun clattered to the deck as blood leaked from his chest.

But now the troops were bursting out of every door, weapons in hand and faces grim. One of them waved his arm towards the front of the ship. "Come on, we've got to-" His voice broke off as he caught sight of Zero, Cassidy, and his dead comrade. "What the f-"

Cassidy heaved herself off the floor. Her hand seized the man's face, and he shrieked as a burst of electricity pulsed. She opened her fingers and leaped away, vanishing into nothingness.

The man was dead before her hand opened.

"_Fire! Kill the intruders!_"

They were _definitely_ well trained. Neither Cassidy's disappearance nor the death of one soldier right in front of them evoked any swears or hesitation. The men simply opened fire, filling the hall with countless bullets.

It wasn't enough.

"Quite admirable!" Zero hurled a kunai through the eye of the closest soldier and vanished. He leapt over the heads of three others, landing behind the one furthest away. He slashed downward, his blade carving through muscle and bone. "You should be a great challenge!" He leapt forward before anyone could react, his blade lancing through another soldier. "Or a good warm up!"

He could _feel_ the laser sights tracking him. Zero jumped backwards, pulling free of his victim-

A volley of gunfire tracked his movement, the projectiles cutting through his torso-

Another solider fell as Zero's blade pierced his throat. The decoy overhead exploded in an electrical burst, staggering another two soldiers. Zero lunged between them and spun around, decapitating both men instantly. He whipped back around, blade at ready... and saw he was out of targets.

Zero straightened up and flicked blood off his sword. {I got my seven. How did you do, little sis?}

{_Still_ battling, brother!}

Zero turned and saw Cassidy standing in a circle of dead soldiers. Burned hand prints adorned each of the fallen, mostly over the heart or face.

One, however, was still locked in hand-to-hand combat. {What's holding you up?}

{Grounded shield,} Cassidy snarled. {Can't shock his system!}

Zero leaned against the wall and folded his arms casually. {Old fashioned way, then?}

{Seems so.} On the next punch, Cassidy seized the man's fist and _squeezed_. He shrieked as the bones in his hands crunched-

Her pistol's blade slashed at his throat.

There was a brief gurgle, then silence.

Silence from the man, at least. The alarms continued to blare throughout the ship. Cassidy darted back to the computer terminal. {More soldiers will be coming,} Zero cautioned. He drew his sword again. {Not that I _mind_, but...}

{I'm taking the time to seek the source of that alarm!} Cassidy growled. {It shouldn't have activated by my actions alone! I require a reason!}

_I will never doubt Whose daughter you truly are. _{Found anything yet?} he asked after a minute.

{No additional enemies approaching,} she reported. {The fighters are all flooding forward. There's an...atmospheric anomaly they're targeting.}

{What?}

{Look!} An image flashed up on the screen.

Zero leaned closer, staring at the purplish-white sphere of light on the display in disbelief. If he'd had a jaw, it would have dropped. {That's _impossible_...}

{What? What is it?}

{It bears a strong resemblance To Lilith's Phasewalk,} Zero said. {But I don't see how-}

The sphere pulsed and flashed a blaze of light bright enough to make them both look away from the monitor. A sonic boom crashed through the hull, rumbling the ship underfoot. As the light dimmed, Zero turned back to the screen. '?!' {What are _they_ doing up there?!}

The _Grinder _hovered overhead, revolving slowly in the air. Bursts of light seemed to be flashing from inside the dome, but its weapons were silent.

Cassidy stared in horror. {Our ship's shields are down! If these guys get any guns going-!}

Another flare erupted from the screen, and for a terrible instant, Zero thought he saw their ship burst into flames. Then he realized the fire was moving _away_ from the _Grinder_, plummeting towards the ground like a comet.

{Outside!}

A hundred yard sprint down the hall brought them to another hull breach and back outside. Screams and gunfire echoed over the landscape, and great explosions shattered the mountain air around them.

Zero turned to Cassidy. {Assist the _Grinder!_ Get her weapons and shielding Up and running _now!_}

{Got it!} She raised her arm and started entering commands. {What will you do?}

{Learn what's happening, Prevent the ship's destruction, And kill _everyone!_} Zero sprinted for the front of the ship, the sounds of battle raging and growing more intense with every step. He rounded the vessel's nose, blade in hand and ready for anything.

Or so he thought.

The land around the front of the warship wasn't a battlefield. It wasn't even a warzone. Those terms implied a two-way struggle, a conflict between reasonably balanced sides.

This was a killing floor. Dozens of soldiers lay strewn across the ground, most of them scorched, many of them not completely intact, all of them unmistakeably dead. Zero caught sight of three survivors running at full speed away from their ship, firing wildly in every direction. His legs tense, and he prepared to leap at them-

The lead soldier halted in mid-step, his body encased by yellow light. Zero had a second to notice the absolute terror on his face-

The man _exploded._

There was no other word for it. One second there was a human body dangling in the air. The next, a rapidly expanding cloud of red mist, drifting slowly to the ground. The other two soldiers skidded to a halt and spun around, firing desperately at a figure walking towards them. It was wreathed in yellow energy that licked the air like flames. Each footstep left a crater as it approached them-

"_Maya!_"

She didn't hear him. Zero wasn't even sure she could. Maya's eyes were blue-white with power, her left arm glowing and crackling with energy. Her hair writhed like something alive, and her face was a snarling mask of hatred. She pointed her left palm at the second of the soldiers-

Red mist.

The last one had a grenade in his hand. Zero started to shout a warning, but Maya didn't need it. With a scream like rending metal, Maya leaped into the air. She hurtled towards the man, her left arm leaving trails of light as she swung her hand at him, fingers hooked into claws and striking at his face.

The final soldier hadn't even had time to pull the pin. The man dropped to his knees and slumped sideways, hand clenched around the useless grenade.

Maya dropped what was left of his face on the ground a second later.

Zero tried again. "Maya!"

She spun around, and Zero couldn't help but take a step backwards. He couldn't see_ any_ of his friend in that visage, none of the intelligent, slightly aloof, but reasonably sociable woman he'd come to know and like. There were only whited-out eyes and black rage contorting every line of her face.

For one brief and uncertain second, Zero felt certain Maya was about to attack him. His hand tightened on his sword...

"Zeeeerooooo..." Maya's voice leaked out in a barely recognizable hiss. "Ssstaaand aaassssiiiideeee..." She raised her finger, pointing straight at him.

'?!'

"Brother! _Behind you!_"

Zero's instincts took control. He obeyed his sister's warning and dove for the ground, not even questioning _why-_

A cannon shell whistled past his helmet as he dropped. If he hadn't ducked, it would have gone through his chest to get to Maya.

Her eyes narrowed.

The shell disintegrated.

Zero rolled onto his knees and saw a massive war mech, ten feet tall and lethally armed. Its steps rattled the ground as it stomped forward, and the five-inch cannon on its left arm was trained perfectly on Maya-

She didn't shriek this time. She didn't jump. Zero didn't even see her lift a foot.

But suddenly, somehow, she was clinging to the suit's cockpit, shards of metal flying all around her as she ripped it apart with her bare hands. The suit's right arm crashed to the ground, sparking, an inch deep bootprint embedded in its shoulder. Maya punched at the cockpit door and buried her arm into it up to her shoulders. She heaved, and the door flew away like paper in a high wind. Light flared from her arm once more-

The suit toppled backwards, crashing to the ground with deafening thunder. Where there had once been a pilot, there remained only red liquid.

Slowly, silence fell over the valley. The light around Maya dimmed and vanished. Her left arm went dark, and Zero saw her shoulders relax. "It's okay, Zero," she called softly. "It's over."

He pushed himself off the ground, looking around the blood soaked terrain. "It's true they're all dead." He stared at Maya's back- she still hadn't turned to face him. "But I do not think 'over' Is the right word here."

"No, I suppose not." Now Maya turned around, and Zero was relieved to see her eyes had stopped glowing. "They still have backup coming from the base." She smiled in a thin, cold way Zero had never seen her use before. "Not that there's much left for them _to_ back up."

Cassidy walked slowly towards Zero, surveying the area with horrified awe. "You did all this damage _alone?_" She stared at Maya open-mouthed. "_How?_"

"The famed power boost," Zero said evenly. He watched Maya carefully, glad that his normal expression hid so much.

She could still tell something was wrong. "What is it, Z?"

Zero almost lied. He almost said 'nothing'. Somehow, though, he sensed Maya would _know_ he was lying, and that she would never forgive him for it.

So he masked the bigger truth by telling a smaller one. "I am slightly troubled by Your actions just now," Zero said, waving his arm at the carnage around them.

Maya's expression darkened slightly. "I just cleared out the last of their soldiers _and_ saved you from that mech suit." Her voice was one degree above threatening. "Do you really have a problem with that?"

Zero shook his head. "They were enemies, Ultimately doomed to die. But _this?_" :/ "Overkill." He watched Maya's eyes closely, looking for any sign of that eerie light returning. "My question is _why. _Why did you kill _these_ men with Such extravagance?"

Her eyes were still their normal blue-gray, but there was a look in them Zero didn't like. It was as if she were deciding his value as an asset...

Maya shrugged, and the look was gone. "It was personal."

"_Personal?_" Cassidy looked at the fallen. "You knew these people?"

"In a manner of speaking. It was that terminal you accessed that tipped me off..."

* * *

><p>"They found a computer!" Sarah almost leapt out of Axton's chair, her body taught with anticipation. "We're recording this, right?"<p>

"Of course," Maya assured her.

"Can you start running a separate feed for me? Something I can slow down and replay as it comes in?"

"Um... I think so." Maya brought up another holoscreen, looking away just as the stylized cloud symbol flashed up on the warship's computer. "Let me see... yes, here it is. Just give me a second to set it up... you're good."

A holoscreen flashed up in front of Sarah, showing the hall. She examined the controls. "Ax, how do you run this?"

"Uhhhh..."

A laugh rumbled out of Krieg as Axton dithered over the controls. "Too much time cleaning the guns, not enough time shooting."

"Bite me, muscle boy," Axton growled. "Like _you_ know how to use these things."

"Well, you two don't, but _I_ do," Maya interrupted wryly, smirking as Axton and Krieg glowered at each other. The playback controls appeared under her hands while the video image reminded floating in front of Sarah. "Krieg's not totally wrong, though. Axton spent all his time in the gym on the way out here. It's amazing he can work the food dispensers."

Sarah gave the tiniest of laughs. "That's nothing. You should have seen the first time he tried to wash his clothes on _my_ ship."

Maya smiled distantly as she toyed with the playback. "Let me guess. Flooded the laundry room?"

"And the cargo bay, and half the hallway up to the bridge. Hold it!" Sarah hand jabbed towards the screen. "There! What was that?"

"I missed it. Where?"

"Back about five seconds...stop." Sarah gazed intently at the screen. "I'll be damned. It looks like we got an identifying mark."

"From their computer?"

"It's on the start-up screen," Sarah said. "Can you put up a bigger version?"

"Easily." A still image of the cloud/lightning bolt flashed up overhead. "That should do-" Maya broke off as she caught sight of the picture, her hands frozen over the controls.

Axton peered at the image. "It's not a sigil I recognize."

"Neither do I, but I'm sure the intelligence boys will," Sarah said confidently. She shook her head in disbelief. "God damn, we've _finally_ got something to go on."

"If you say so." Axton squinted at the design. "What's that even supposed to be?" he wondered. "A stormcloud?"

"Danger on the horizon."

For a second, Axton didn't realize who had spoken. Then he glanced around the bridge, and it couldn't have been more obvious. "Maya? What's wrong?"

"It's the far-away threat," she went on, as if she didn't hear him. Her voice was twisted and choked, almost unrecognizable. "The oncoming nightmare. The inevitable doom." Her hands were clenched and trembling at her sides. The left one slowly dripped red onto the floor.

Krieg laid an uneasy hand on her shoulder. "Pretty Lady...?"

"It's _them_, Krieg." She whirled towards him, absolute hatred blazing in her eyes. "Those manipulative, worthless, condescending _bastards!_"

The screens across the bridge began to flicker.

"Hold on a minute." Sarah got to her feet, ignoring the fritzing video screen. "You _recognize_ that symbol?"

"I should!" Maya snarled. "I grew up seeing it! Every room had a picture of it, every building a mural, every single damned _one_ of them wore it on their robes!"

The screens flickered more wildly, their images breaking down into random pixels. The deck began to vibrate subtly underfoot.

Axton stared. "Wait... you mean that symbol belongs to-"

"The people that raised me to be their weapon. The monks that hid me away from the universe. The church that stole my _life!_" Maya's tattoos pulsed with light as she stared daggers at the symbol overhead. The drips from her left hand had merged into a thick stream. "_The Order of the Impending Storm._"

She twisted around to look at Sarah. "You want these guys dead? Fine." She glared at the screen, the light on her arm growing brighter. "I'll do that for you. I'll kill them _all._"

Axton looked around at the dome uneasily. A purple light had begun to encircle the ship. "Maya...?"

"I'll kill them _now._"

* * *

><p>Maya looked around the area in satisfaction. "And I <em>did.<em>" She grinned, a crazed expression loaded with a blood-lust that Zero had never seen in her, even in their wildest Pandoran battles. "And I _reveled_ in it."

Zero did his best to conceal his misgivings. "Revelry aside, You're right about their back up." He motioned to the disabled warship. "We should secure this."

Maya nodded. "But not just the three of us." She looked up at the _Grinder, _her tattoos beginning to glow blue_._ "Sarah, at the very least, would be... _irritated_ if we left her out." Her markings suddenly shifted from blue-white to orange-

A burst of purple light flared next to Maya. When it vanished, it left Axton, Krieg, and Sarah standing next to her.

Axton jerked and looked around wildly. "What the _hell?!_"

Krieg thumped himself on the head a few times with his axe. "The vortex grabbed me by the guts and dragged me to the moon!"

:O "That was a _phasewalk._" Zero stared in disbelief. "You can use _Lilith's _powers? How did you _do_ that?"

"I'll explain later," Maya promised. "Right now, I believe there's some prisoners we have to rescue."

* * *

><p><span>[One person's bad day is another prisoner's liberation, I guess.]<span>

[Due to travel and holiday stuff, I'll be taking a little time to rebuild and refine my next couple chapters. This story will update next on January 17th. The space between will update in the interim.]

[Thanks for reading!]


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